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MEXICO^S DILEMMA 
CARL W. AGKERMAN 




Cisai 



A MEXICAN cartoonist's VIEW OF SENOR CABRERA^ 
ONE OF THE MOST DOMINANT CIVILIAN OFFICIALS 



MEXICO'S 
DILEMMA 



BY 

CARL W. ACKERMAN 

AUTHOR OF "GERMANY, THE NEXT REPUBLIC ? " 




ILLUSTRATED 



NEW YORK 
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 






COPYRIGHT. 1918. 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 



MAY -4 1918 



COPYRIGHT, 1917, 
BY THE CURTIS PUBLISHING COMPANY 



COPYRIGHT, 1917, 
BY AMERICAN ACADEMY OF POLITICAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCE 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



©C!,A487163 



INTRODUCTION 

Mexico's Dilemma has three horns. 

They are : 1. Financial ruin of Mexico and 
internal disorders unless a loan is obtained. 2. 
The possibility of subjugation to German influ- 
ence with all of its liability for external strife. 
3. Co-operation with the United States, England, 
France and America. 

What will Mexico do? 

The answer is one which future events will de- 
termine. In this book the author has tried to tell 
what forces and influences are sharpening each of 
the three horns. There are bandits, disloyal Mex- 
icans, ambitious officials, patriotic citizens, honest 
business men, Teutonic intriguers, spies, propa- 
gandists, diplomats, millionaires, army officers 
and I. W. W. firebrands at work. Is it any won- 
der, then, that Mexico finds herself in such a 
Dilemma? 

Mexico has always been a home and workshop 
for foreigners. Several thousand years ago the 
Chinese settled in that country and, judging from 
the relics which are found to-day, in and about 
Mexico City, Chinese civilisation flourished there 
for a few hundred years. Terra cotta relics are 
found showing an unmistakable Mongolian type 



vi INTRODUCTION 

of face, and, because a large mimber of art ob- 
jects similar to those found in China have been 
unearthed, archeologists conclude that Mexico was 
once the foreign colony of the Chinese. 

After the Chinese civilisation disappeared the 
Aztec and pre- Aztec Indians dominated the land. 
A few hundred years ago the Spaniards landed 
and Mexico passed through a period of conquest 
which ended with the execution of the Austrian, 
Emperor Maximilian. And to-day, in Monterey 
is preserved the rifle which was used at this ex- 
ecution, preserved even by the Eebels during the 
revolutions. 

A few decades ago English, French and Ameri- 
can capitalists went to Mexico to develop the 
wonderfully rich resources, and Mexico under 
President Porfirio Diaz became a great, inter- 
nationally respected nation. 

The revolution which overthrew Diaz drove 
thousands of these foreigners from the country, 
and the immigration of Germans and Austrians, 
which had started earlier, increased until to-day 
the Teuton strength is so great that Mexican 
politics is interwoven with German intrigue. 
Where a few years ago The Mexican Herald, an 
English language newspaper, had a wide circula- 
tion and commanded the respect and attention of 
all foreigners, there is to-day a Deutsche Zeitung 
von Mexico. 

Germany is active in Mexico, honestly and dis- 
honestly. The character of many of the German 



INTRODUCTION vii 

citizens there cannot be attacked and their hon- 
esty cannot he questioned, hut, as is the case in 
the United States and in all countries where the 
German Government intriguers have worked, all 
Germans in Mexico are hearing the burdens of a 
corrupt, dishonest, deceitful government in Ber- 
lin. Most of the things which the Germans are 
doing there, both against the United States and 
against Mexico itself, are done at the direction 
of Berlin. Who would have expected Mexico to 
think of invading the United States to **get 
back** American territory until it was suggested 
to the German Minister in Mexico City by Dr. 
Alfred Zimmermann, former Secretary of State? 
What honest, intelligent Mexican favours war 
with the United States when there is nothing to 
gain for Mexico except flattery from Berlin? 
What capable Mexican business man, or govern- 
ment official, favours labour riots at Tampico to 
cut off the oil supply which is bringing millions 
of dollars to the Mexican Treasury? What is 
there for Mexico to gain if the oil wells and 
mines are destroyed? Mexico loses by such things 
and Berlin gains. 

When I returned from Germany to America in 
March, 1917, 1 found so many people asking what 
the Germans were doing in Mexico that I pro- 
posed to the Editor of The Saturday Evening 
Post that I go to that country for the purpose of 
making an investigation. It seemed to me that 
public opinion in the United States was divided ; 



viii INTRODUCTION 

that some people thought the German activity in 
Mexico was no greater than, if as great as, that in 
the United States, while others believed it much 
more portentous. 

In July, having my two passports in order, as 
both an American and a Mexican passport were 
needed, I left New York City for San Antonio, 
Texas, where I met and talked with a large num- 
ber of Mexicans, including Mr. Sam Belden, the 
attorney for the Mexican Consul; Senor don 
Manuel Amaya, Official Introducer of Ambassa- 
dors in President Carranza's cabinet; General 
Salinas and a Mexican physician from Monterey. 
I remained at San Antonio until Ambassador 
Henry Prather Fletcher and Mrs. Fletcher ar- 
rived en route to Mexico City. Upon the invita- 
tion of Senor Amaya I travelled on the special 
train which took Mr. Fletcher to the Mexican 
capital. 

I crossed the International Bridge with the 
official party and drove through the dusty streets 
of Nuevo Laredo to the railway siding where the 
train was waiting. That evening, after consider- 
able delay — ^bandits had destroyed a bridge just 
outside the city — reached Monterey, in company 
with Mr. Randolph Robertson, Acting Consul- 
General for the United States, and several Mex- 
icans, including a Captain attached to the National 
Palace. 

The next day the train stopped at San Luis 
Potosi. Ambassador and Mrs. Fletcher were en- 



INTRODUCTION ix 

tertained by General Barragan, the Governor of 
the state, and his staff. At the banquet I sat be- 
side Senor Montezuma, a direct descendant of the 
famous Indian chief. From San Luis Potosi to 
Mexico City we passed through a beautiful 
stretch of country under armed escort. 

In Mexico City I met members of the cabinet, 
Mexican Generals, members of the Chamber of 
Deputies, American and English business men, 
bankers, newspapermen and others. I employed 
a young Mexican student from the University of 
Texas as an interpreter, journeyed about the city 
and the suburbs, and studied, in every way possi- 
ble for me, the social and political conditions in 
the capital of the Eepublic. 

Before I left the United States I had encoun- 
tered two classes of citizens, those who had faith 
in the possibilities for good of the Carranza Gov- 
ernment and those who violently opposed this 
government. In Mexico I found quite the same 
situation. Not only were the foreigners divided 
in opinion but the Mexicans themselves, though 
here those opposing the government were not as 
pronounced in the expression of their judgment 
for fear of Article 33 in the Mexican Constitution. 
This article reads : 

"Foreigners are those who do not possess the 
qualifications prescribed in Article 30. They 
shall be entitled to the rights granted by Chapter 
I, Title I of the present constitution; but the ex- 



X INTRODUCTION 

ecutive shall have the exclusive right to expel 
from the Republic forthwith and without judicial 
process, amy foreigner whose presence he may 
deem inexpedient. 

''No foreigner shall meddle in any way what- 
soever in the political affairs of the country." 

From this section developed the phrase "to be 
Thirty-threed," meaning to be exiled without 
trial or hearing, from Mexico. 

From Monterey I travelled to Tampioo on the 
regular morning train which was crowded with 
Mexicans, Indians and Germans long before the 
hour of departure. Most of the Germans left at 
towns along the line, but a few continued to the 
great oil port. 

In Tampico I had the assistance and the same 
cordial co-operation from the Americans, espe- 
cially the representatives of the oil companies, 
that I had had in Mexico City. As I look back 
now upon my contact with the Americans in Mex- 
ico they appear to me to be, with only one excep- 
tion that I can recall, all active, energetic business 
men, who, far from being in that country to ' * rob" 
it are there working and striving for the same 
things that business men, bankers, clerks and 
labourers honestly strive for in the United States. 

Early one September morning I boarded a large 
oil tanker in Tampico harbour, crossed the Gulf 
of Mexico to Sabine Pass, Texas, when that great 
body of water was as quiet and smooth as a small 



INTRODUCTION 3d 

lake. Arriving in Texas, and looking back upon 
my experiences in Mexico, I felt that I had had an 
opportunity of studying conditions at first hand, 
not, indeed, as they were during the revolution, 
but as they were then. Nothing, though, that I 
know of changes like Mexico. What one day is 
the situation the next day may not exist at all. 

In the first article which I wrote for The Satur- 
day Evening Post 1 spoke of the two policies 
which faced Mexico : either Mexico could join the 
United States and the Allies, at least to the ex- 
tent of breaking diplomatic relations with Berlin, 
or Mexico might stay out of this league of nations 
and by so doing give the German propagandists 
further opportunity of creating hatred, suspicion 
and fear between Mexico and the United States. 
In case of the latter event, should it continue 
long enough, no one can be sure that Mexico, under 
German influence, may not some day be an enemy 
of the United States. 

That is what I wrote in July, 1917. By mid- 
November, the former Associated Press corre- 
spondent in Mexico City had reached New York. 
A letter from Mexico stated that he was exiled 
because he wrote a series of articles for the 
"A. P.," telling of the campaign which the Ger- 
mans were conducting, in co-operation with the 
bandit leaders, to prevent the Carranza govern- 
ment from breaking with Berlin. The letter, 
which I received, said the correspondent, whom I 
had met while I was there, was tapped on the 



xii INTRODUCTION 

shoulder one night by a secret service agent and 
told to leave the next morning for the United 
States. 

So it is in Mexico. Zimmermann is not alone 
in his intrigues. 

With the sincere hope that this book will help 
Americans to understand Mexico as it is I sub- 
mit it to the reading public. Everything, includ- 
ing future peace between the two nations, Mexico 
and the United States, and their mutual pros- 
perity, depends upon our having a full under- 
standing of the situation. This book does not pre- 
tend to contain all there is to be known about 
Mexico to-day but the author believes it to pre- 
sent a true account of conditions and politics in 
Mexico at the time of its writing. 

I have employed in this book the major portion 
of five articles written for The Saturday Evening 
Post to which I have added considerable new ma- 
terial. I am indebted to so many Americans and 
Mexicans for assistance and information, some 
whose names might be mentioned, others whose 
names cannot be given, that I welcome this oppor- 
tunity to thank them all. 

C. W. A. 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Introduction v 

The Zimmermann Note xviii 

CHAPTER 

I. A Bird's-Eye View 19 

II. The Mexican Puzzle 24 

III. Rebels and Revolutions 48 

IV. Germany's Ally at Tampico .... 68 
V. The Last Spy Offensive 98 

VI. Rising or Setting Sun in Mexico . . . 117 

VII. The Future 136 

Appendix 141 

A. Financial Bills 143 

B. The New Mexican Constitution . . . 153 

C. Mexican Railways 264 

D. The American Chamber of Commerce . 273 

E. The Last Mexican Election .... 279 



zii! 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Mexican Cartoonist's View of Senor Cabrera 

Frontispiece 

PAGE 

Mexican Villagers Who Turned Out to See 

Senor Fletcher |28 

Ambassador Fletcher's Military Escort . . 28 

Cover for the German Newspaper of Mexico 36 

This Was at One Time a Beautiful Residence 52 

The Famous "Saddle Mountain" of Monterey 52 

The U. S. Warships at Anchor in Tampico Harbor 70 

An Oil Gusher at Tampico 70 

The Gusher of the Cerro Azul Oil Well — 600 

Feet High 80 

Another View of Germany's Leaders . . , 100 

Cover Cartoon of Ambassador Fletcher . . 112 

Terra Cotta Heads Found by Prof. Niven . . 122 

An Aztec Family Tree 122 

Professor William Niven 132 

List of the Presidents of Mexico, Gen. Porfirio 

Diaz to Lie. Francisco Garbajal .... 162 

XV 



xvi ILLUSTRATIONS 

List of Presidents of Mexico, Eulalio Gutier- 
rez TO C. Venustiano Carranza 178 

The Ruined Railway Depot and Freight Cars 
AT Monterey 266 

A Typical Mexican Railway Train .... 266 



MEXICO'S DILEMMA 



/^cv 



THE ZIMMERMANN NOTE 

Berlin, January 19, 1917. 

To His Excellency, the Imperial 
German Minister to Mexico. 

On the first of February we intend to begin unre- 
stricted submarine warfare. In spite of this, it is our in- 
tention to endeavour to keep tbe United States of Amer- 
ica neutral. 

If tbis attempt is not successful, we propose an alli- 
ance on tbe following basis with Mexico : That we shall 
make war together and together make peace. We shall 
give general financial support, and it is understood that 
Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory in New Mex- 
ico, Texas and Arizona. The details are left to you for 
settlement. 

You are instructed to inform the President of Mex- 
ico of the above in the greatest confidence as soon as it 
is certain that there will be an outbreak of war with the 
United States, and suggest that the President of Mexico, 
on his own initiative, should communicate with Japan 
suggesting adherence at once to this plan. At the same 
time offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. 

Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico 
that the employment of ruthless submarine warfare now 
promises to compel England to make peace within a few 
months. 

ZiMMERMANN. 



MEXICO'S DILEMMA 



CHAPTER I 
A bied's-eye view 

PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S words on Mexico, 
sent in the form of instructions to the 
United States Minister in Mexico City, true 
as they must have been more than fifty years ago, 
are just as true to-day. "For a few years past the 
condition of Mexico has been so unsettled as to 
raise the question on both sides of the Atlantic 
whether the time has not come when some foreign 
power ought, in the general interest of society, 
to intervene, to establish a protectorate or some 
other form of government in that country and 
guarantee its continuance there," wrote the Presi- 
dent. He continued: 

''You will not fail to assure the Government of 
Mexico that the President neither has, nor can 
ever have, any sympathy with such designs, in 
whatever quarter they may arise or whatever 
character they may take on. . . . 

' ' The President never for a moment doubts that 

19 



20 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

the republican system is to pass safely through 
all ordeals and prove a permanent success in our 
own country, and so to be recommended to adop- 
tion by all other nations. 

''But he thinks, also, that the system every- 
where has to make its way painfully through diffi- 
culties and embarrassments which result from 
the action of antagonistical elements which are a 
legacy of former times and very different institu- 
tions. 

"The President is hopeful of the ultimate tri- 
umph of this system over all obstacles, as well in 
regard to Mexico as in regard to every other 
American State ; but he feels that those States are 
nevertheless justly entitled to a greater forbear- 
ance and more generous sympathies from the 
Government and people of the United States 
than they are likely to receive in any other 
quarter. . . . 

*'The President trusts that your mission, mani- 
festing these sentiments, will reassure the Gov- 
ernment of Mexico of his best disposition to 
favour their commerce and their internal im- 
provements. 

"I find the archives here full of complaints 
against the Mexican Government for violation of 
contracts and spoliation and cruelties practiced 
against American citizens. It is not the Presi- 
dent's intention to send forward such claims at 
the present moment. He willingly defers the per- 
formance of a duty, which at any time would 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 21 

seem ungracious, until the incoming administra- 
tion in Mexico shall have had time, if possible, 
to cement its authority.'^ 

How many Americans there are to-day who feel 
as apprehensive as did President Lincoln! How 
many Americans ask to-day whether the United 
States may not have to intervene in Mexico, after 
all, to help establish peace and order! 

In his International Law Digest, Professor 
John Bassett Moore, former Counsellor of the 
State Department in Washington, writes : 

*'0n November 28, 1876, General Porfirio Diaz 
issued a proclamation announcing himself pro- 
visional president of the Eepublio of Mexico, 
under the Plan of Tuxtepec. On January 19, 
1877, intelligence having been received at Wash- 
ington of the defeat of the forces of the rival 
claimants Secretary of State Fish suggested that 
if this should be confirmed by similar tidings re- 
ceived at the City of Mexico, General Diaz 'would 
have no important adversary in arms and might 
be regarded as the actual ruler of the country.' 
The question of recognising his government was 
under the circumstances left to the discretion of 
the American Minister. In view, however, of the 
unsettled state of affairs in Mexico, and especially 
of the existence of controversies between the two 
countries growing out of troubles on the Rio 
Grande frontier, it was afterwards determined 



S^ MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

that the Government of the United States, al- 
though it was ' accustomed to accept and recognise 
the results of a popular choice in Mexico,' would 
in this particular instance 'wait before recognis- 
ing President Diaz as President of Mexico until 
it shall be assured that his election is approved 
by the Mexican people, and that his administra- 
tion is possessed of stability to endure and of dis- 
position to comply with the rules of international 
comity and the obligations of treaties. ' The Diaz 
Government was officially recognised by Germany 
May 30, 1877, by Salvador and Guatemala June 7, 
by Spain June 16 and soon afterwards similar 
action was taken by Italy. These were all the 
powers then represented in Mexico, except the 
United States. In his annual message of Decem- 
ber 3, 1877, President Hayes stated that it had 
been 'the custom of the United States when such 
(revolutionary) changes of government have here- 
tofore occurred in Mexico, to recognise and enter 
into official relations with the de facto government 
as soon as it shall appear to have the approval of 
the Mexican people and should manifest a disposi- 
tion to adhere to the obligations of treaties and 
international friendship,' but that 'in the present 
case such official recognition had been deferred 
by the occurrences on the Eio Grande border.' 

"Official recognition was given in May, 1878, 
when a formal reception was tendered to a new 
minister from Mexico and the President formally 



A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 23 

replied to the letter of General Diaz announcing 
the recall of the provisional representative." 

The events which followed the recognition of 
President Diaz are familiar enough. The story 
of events from 1910, from the overthrow of Diaz 
to the recognition of the de facto government of 
President Carranza, has been told in many ver- 
sions. The past I shall leave to the reader's judg- 
ment. My concern is with the present. 



CHAPTEE n 

THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 

TROUBLE and revolutions are two things 
which can be started without money. It 
doesn't require money to start a street 
fight nor does it require gold to upset a nation. 

This is not more true of any place than of Mex- 
ico. The seven years of strife which the people 
south of the Rio Grande have had are not due to 
a fat treasury. But Mexico has reached the place 
now where it knows that money is necessary to 
end a revolution. 

More than a century ago when France was ex- 
periencing the internal disorders which infest 
Mexico a revolutionist remarked that ** Revolu- 
tions are not made with rosewater." To-day the 
Mexicans will tell you that the evils of a revolu- 
tion are not washed away with perfume, either. 
This requires money. 

Early in the summer of 1917 the Mexican Gov- 
ernment invited Mr. Henry Breure, former City 
Chamberlain of New York, and two expert ac- 
countants, including Mr. Thomas W. Lill, who 
spent nine years helping to reorganise the Philip- 
pine Government, to establish business methods in 

24 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 85 

the governmental departments. One day in July 
the American commission went to Guadalajara, 
the centre of the ranch section, with an official 
escort of Mexicans. After dinner one evening an 
American asked a representative of the Carranza 
Government what the revolution had accomplished 
for the Mexican people. The officer explained 
what he thought the results of the revolution 
would be, but the American pressed him for an 
answer to his original question. Eeluctantly the 
officer admitted that, so far, nothing had been 
accomplished. 

Mexico has reached the crossroad in the path of 
the revolution. Since 1910 she has had nothing 
but trouble and although it was not begun with 
money it has cost the government and the people 
millions of dollars in gold and property, thou- 
sands of lives and the loss of her international 
prestige which cannot be measured in pesos. To- 
day most of the fighting is at an end. There are 
bandits in some sections of the Republic, but their 
raids are becoming fewer each month. Mexico 
City, itself, is as busy and active as New York, 
but there is a financial crisis, which, although not 
evident upon the surface of things, is destined to 
mark the climax of the revolution. 

I arrived in Mexico in July to look at the politi- 
cal, economic, social and revolutionary puzzle 
from the inside. I saw many phases of it in 
Monterey, San Luis Potosi and Mexico City, this 
puzzle which is still puzzling Mexico. I have been 



26 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

told that not even President Carranza knows how 
it will be solved, although at least two solutions 
are possible. 

When I crossed the international bridge at 
Laredo, Texas, and sauntered through the streets 
of Nuevo Laredo, a midget donkey, carrying a 
long-legged peon, trekked around the corner of 
the telegraph office. The Mexican had to hold up 
his feet to keep from dragging them in the dust. 
The beast was so small, and the man so tall, that 
head down it might have walked between his legs. 
Jostling behind the pair was a small "express" 
wagon such as American boys play with. It was 
loaded with grass, sufficient for about one meal 
for a hungry donkey. A string which the peon 
held was tied to the wagon tongue. And the beast 
was thus, presumably, hauling its load and food 
to the hovel which was their home. 

I described this incongruous sight to an Ameri- 
can who was en route to Mexico with me, where- 
upon he remarked : 

''How typical of Mexico to-day — the old Bibli- 
cal ass, the American toy and the lazy peon. 
Since the revolution all the progress Mexico made 
under Diaz has disappeared. Mexico to-day is 
stagnant. ' ' 

A few minutes later, however, I went through 
the Nuevo Laredo freight depot with Mr. Ran- 
dolph Eobertson, U. S. Vice Consul at Monterey. 
Automobiles, food, machinery, household goods 
and thousands of different manufactured articles 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 27 

from the United States were packed within its 
four walls awaiting transportation to various 
parts of Mexico. More than two hundred Mexi- 
cans were busy loading the freight cars on the 
siding. In Laredo, Texas, according to American 
oflScials, there are 250 freight cars loaded with 
goods for Mexico awaiting shipping facilities. 

In Monterey during April, May and June the 
American consulate records show that the im- 
ports and exports of that district were greater 
than at any time in the history of Mexico. 

According to the evidence in Nuevo Laredo and 
Monterey, Mexico is not only not standing still 
^ut is making vigorous business strides forward. 

There are three ways of looking at Mexico. 
One is to view the past with all its rape, murder, 
robbery and banditry ; its destruction and misery. 
The second way is to observe the present with its 
grave problems, its ignorance and hatred. The 
third way is to peer into the future with its un- 
limited possibilities for ruin or success. I was 
not in Mexico during its Eeign of Terror, but I 
saw some of the results — the razed cities, the de- 
stroyed railroads and foreign property, the pov- 
erty and evidences of atrocities. I went to Mex- 
ico to report the present and to narrate in a broad 
way what may be expected in the future. It is the 
to-day of Mexico which will determine the to- 
morrow, and it is the to-morrow of Mexico which 
will decide whether Mexico is to be ruled by Mex- 
icans or whether the United States must intervene 



28 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

to establish order and protect the business inter- 
ests of her citizens and those of her Allies. 

I went to Mexico on the Honeymoon Special 
which took Ambassador Henry Prather Fletcher 
and his bride to the ancient capital of the Aztecs. 
From the sandy banks of the muddy Eio Grande 
to the rainy plateau of Central Mexico Mr. 
Fletcher travelled like a conquering hero. In the 
receptions which were accorded him, if they were 
not as resplendent as similar functions in the 
United States, there was evident a good-will and 
there was present more enthusiasm than had been 
shown any Americans since the days of Diaz. Mr. 
Fletcher's return was triumphant despite the fact 
that the military salutes were crude and the music 
even cruder. When the Ambassador crossed the 
international bridge a Mexican cannon, hidden in 
the bushes of Nuevo Laredo, saluted, but there 
was a long time between shots. As the official 
representative of the United States he should 
have received nineteen salutations instead of five, 
but the ambassador was so busy exchanging greet- 
ings he did not notice this until I asked him 
whether the embargo had been raised on ammuni- 
tion for saluting purposes. It seems that because 
of the famous Tampico incident the Mexicans are 
not permitted to have fireworks. 

Although the first band which greeted the envoy 
played the "Star-Spangled Banner," the others 
confined their music to Mexican pieces until the 
train reached Queretaro. Then during an effer- 




ilEXICAN VILLAGERS WHO TURNED OUT TO 
SEE SENOR FLETCHER 




AMBASSADOR FLETCHER'S MILITARY ESCORT 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 29 

vescence of enthusiasm, when the ambassador was 
being hugged by an unusually large number of 
Mexican officials, the band played the Hesitation 
Waltz. 

One travels through Mexico to-day with an 
' * exploradoro. ' ' Bandits are still operating along 
the railroad lines and it is not safe to be without 
'^protection." The '^ exploradoro, " which pre- 
ceded the Honeymoon Special, was made up of 
two armoured cars filled with soldiers. In two 
day coaches on the Special itself were two groups 
of soldiers. One car contained the soldiers trav- 
elling with their families, in the other were men 
in uniform. On the back platform of the private 
car, which President Carranza used when he was 
First Chief of the Constitutionalists, stood three 
soldiers armed with heavy Mexican rifles. One 
day when the train was nearing Mexico City an 
American asked a member of President Car- 
ranza 's staff about the Mexican rifles. The Cap- 
tain replied they were ''very good" except that 
they were "easily overheated." Then, adding 
that each gun was loaded with a minimum of ten 
rounds, he lifted one of the weapons to exhibit 
the ammunition. The rifle was empty ! He exam- 
ined the second. It was just as harmless, and 
when the third was opened the situation became 
embarrassing. The guard on the rear platform 
was without ammunition. The guard could not 
be condemned because the Carranza Government 
has needed the sinews of war and Mr. Fletcher 



30 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

was just returning from Washington after hav- 
ing persuaded President Wilson that the embargo 
should be raised. 

The bandits, however, which the ambassador 
saw on the return to his post, were perfectly harm- 
less and the " exploradoro " and "armed" soldiers 
were not needed. At various points along the line 
one sees bandits hanging from telegraph poles and 
trees, swaying in the wind like pendulums. The 
men who tied these fellows up did a good job of 
it. They will not drop until they decay, when the 
wolves will take charge. 

From the Texas border to Monterey one sees 
nothing but sand, cactus plants and dust. Along 
the route there are "specks" where once stood 
villages, villages which passed away during some 
stage of the revolution. The depots and homes are 
destroyed. The people, who remained, are like ani- 
mals. They live in the ruins or under the blue 
sky, day and night. They are clothed in garments 
which after hard wear would have been discarded 
five years ago by almost any one else. Many 
children run with only a rag round their waists. 
The women and men alike are barefooted, or, per- 
haps to protect tender feet, some still have the 
sole of a shoe which is tied to each foot with 
strings. Almost all live by selling food to the 
travellers who must go this way to Monterey and 
Mexico City. Eggs, cheese, pancakes, water, milk, 
coffee, beans — the national dish — and whatnot, 
are peddled at so many centavos apiece. Here is 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 31 

poverty without misery. These people are happy 
and contented. They have never seen any other 
living. They have no schools. There are no 
churches. Civilisation to them is a railroad train. 
Business is a railroad train. Life is but the hours 
between trains. 

As I stood on the siding at Queretaro one day 
gazing at this awful aspect of life, a young Mexi- 
can, who had been educated in the United States, 
remarked to me : 

*^You know, if these people could go to the 
states for a few years they would come back dif- 
ferent people. They don't know any better. They 
have had no opportunity." 

While the engine was taking water at Quere- 
taro and I sauntered about the train I met an old 
American railroader who had been working on 
Mexican railways twenty years. Four thousand 
dollars, his life savings, which he had invested in 
a hotel in a town near there, disappeared one 
night in a fire when the bandits came to burn and 
plunder. 

"These bandits," said he, *'will never stop until 
there is food enough for all the people. There 
would be no bandits if there was work for the men" 
and food for their families. You know what the 
Mexicans say around here. Oh, I know them and 
they don't know I'm an American or my life 
would not be worth that" — and he snapped his 
fingers. ' ' But I make good money and I travel up 
and down these lines. You know these people say 



S2 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

that all the food in Mexico has to be sent to the 
United States to feed the soldiers and that if the 
United States had not gone to war there would be 
plenty of food in Mexico. ' ' 

While we were standing in the sun's rays, an 
old crippled woman with her blind daughter eame 
up begging for money. 

*' Don't give that old hag anything," said my 
companion. "You know, she gouged the eyes out 
of that kid so she could get more money begging. 
Yes, sir. That's what she did. Blinded that little 
girl of hers." 

Then cursing in Spanish he kicked the sand with 
his foot and forced her to wabble away. I mar- 
velled at the flood of his words. It must require 
twenty years' residence to be able to curse in 
Spanish and do it properly. I had had a book 
called ''Spanish in a Week" for more than a 
month and about all I could do was to buy a cigar 
and order eggs and bacon. 

After fifty-six hours of travel and delay, the 
Honeymoon Special reached Mexico City. 

The city to-day is surprisingly peaceful and 
busy. Hundreds of automobiles and carriages 
race through the streets — there appear to be no 
speed laws in force and Mexicans drive their cars 
with the same enthusiasm that a child plays with a 
new toy. The avenues Cinco de Mayo (the Fifth 
of May), Francisco I. Madero and Avenida 
Juarez are as busy as Broadway or State Street, 
though the people look more like those along the 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE S3 

Bowery and ETalsted Street. Poor and peon, mid- 
dle class and foreigner, rub elbows on the side- 
walks as newsboys run through the streets with 
extras. 

But what incongruous sights one sees ! I rode 
out the Paseo de la Ref orma, the Riverside Drive 
of Mexico City, to see the palatial homes of the 
Cientifioos, those great houses where the old fol- 
lowers of Diaz lived like monarchs. In the park- 
ways along the sides of the street nurse girls were 
wheeling the babies of the wealthy. On this thor- 
oughfare there were no signs of poverty, although 
the street pavement itself was a motly compound 
of holes and pavement and the carriage bumped 
and jostled from curb to curb. A little later I 
walked up Avenida Juarez where beggars seem to 
crawl out of every doorway. Not far from the 
Spanish Embassy, a big palatial structure, I 
paused at the barracks of the second infantry 
regiment to listen to the band and to watch the 
soldiers saunter here and there with nothing to 
do but "kill time," smoke cigarettes and talk to 
their wives and children who are as numerous as 
the soldiers themselves. On the curb, in front, sat 
a big, fat Mexican woman smoking a brown cig- 
arette. A baby, just able to walk, stood in the 
street before her, sucking at its mother's breast 
and punching it with its bony fists in an effort to 
extract the morning breakfast. A soldier handed 
the woman a cake. She tied this in a soiled hand- 
kerchief where she carried her money and other 



S4t MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

valuables and contimied to puff at the cigarette. 

In front of the National Palace two companies 
of soldiers in impossible field uniforms, some bare- 
footed, and all dirty, paraded behind a military 
band. 

People crowd into the shops. There is so much 
business shop-keepers are as independent as an 
American firm without competition. On the side 
streets some policemen or boy-scouts are drilling 
and receiving instructions from officers. 

Aside from the newspapers and the posters in 
the windows one would not suspect that there is a 
war in Europe. 

From the shop windows one learns that there is 
a great war in progress, and one learns it from 
the Germans. In many windows are large maps 
of Europe showing Germany and the Central 
Powers in red and the Allies in black. The neu- 
trals are "yellow." The map is labelled: ''The 
Defensive War of the Central Powers." It is a 
clever bit of German propaganda. Although only 
about two out of every ten Mexicans can read and 
write, all can understand pictures. This map, 
even without a heading, tells a story which the 
Mexicans can comprehend. 

Another cartoon pictures a bull fight. All bulls 
representing the Allies are defeated and the Ger- 
man bull defiantly gazes at Uncle Sam, who is 
standing at the edge of the ring. A man repre- 
senting Mexico is standing beside Uncle Sam and 
urging him not to get into the ring. 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 35 

In several jewelry shops I saw placards, or 
what were supposed to be photographs of ''wild 
men from Australia," and the label underneath 
said: ''These wild men of Australia are fighting 
for England for the civilisation of Europe. ' ' 

There are more Japanese shops in Mexico City 
than I had expected to find. Although there are 
three or four in the business district, the big ma- 
jority are in the suburbs. In offices throughout 
the city one sees hundreds of Japanese posters, 
advertising Nipponese goods. In the only foun- 
dry in Mexico City which is making war munitions 
is a big, modern Japanese factory, recently im- 
ported from Japan. When the present govern- 
ment found it impossible to obtain war supplies 
from the United States, a Japanese commission 
was invited to Mexico and this plant was erected 
by the Far Easterners. The large wireless tower 
near Chapultepec Park I saw being repaired. A 
Mexican officer told me when it was finished it 
would be powerful enough to communicate with 
Japan. Although American observers have heard 
this, they consider it improbable. 

Six months before I arrived in Mexico the pres- 
ent government was exceedingly suspicious of 
Americans and especially of the United States 
Government. When an American during my stay 
there called upon a high government official and 
discussed the question of a loan this official re- 
marked : 

"The American people and the Mexican peo- 



36 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

pie are all right, but the governments are all 
crooked." 

To a great extent Ambassador Fletcher, who 
speaks Spanish and knows the characteristics of 
Latin peoples, has been able to re-establish confi- 
dence in many circles, but his task is by no means 
completed. There is a strong anti-American 
sentiment in Mexico which is being augmented by 
the pro-German propaganda. One morning I was 
told in several places that the Allies were about 
to be defeated and that Eussia was to join with 
Austria-Hungary and Japan against England, 
France and the United States. Every time I 
passed the big German book store in Mexico City, 
where German photographs and maps are dis- 
played, the sidewalks were crowded with people. 
In one window hung the same map of Europe 
which one sees in many shop windows in Berlin 
— a gigantic chart showing the position of the 
armies of Germany in the occupied territories, 
a ''proof" that Germany is winning the war. 

The lack of confidence in the ability of the Allies 
to defeat Germany and old suspicion of the United 
States are the two things which hamper the lead- 
ing Mexicans who are working for a closer rela- 
tionship between Mexico and the Powers fighting 
Central Europe. Most intellectual Mexicans, as 
well as many government officials, realise that the 
best interests of Mexico are with those of the 
United States, France and England, but the preju- 
dice of the people is difficult to overcome. 



3)mbd)e§ritttnpon!Rextb 

^special 



EDITQRES' mOlLERHNOS. 



I Director: GnriquePirezValeni 



Preclo de este Nu 



.TBRBRIA ALEMANA 



30= 



CJEINT-A.-VOS*. 



Mexico, 15 deagosto de 1917 |[ 




:OVER FOR THE GERMAN NEWSPAPER OF MEXICO 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 37 

The question of what attitude Mexico should 
ultimately take regarding the world war is very 
closely connected with the Mexican puzzle to-day. 
This problem is : 

"How can Mexico obtain money*?" 

The first conclusion which the American experts 
reached after two months' examination of the 
Mexican records was that the nation was bank- 
rupt. One of the officials began the dictation of a 
report beginning with a statement to that effect. 
Then when he tried to establish his conclusion by 
facts, the facts failed him. So he finally concluded 
that if the government is reorganised along scien- 
tific business lines it will be able to weather the 
present storm without financial aid from a for- 
eign country. In coming to this conclusion, how- 
ever, this authority was compelled to disregard 
the foreign debt and foreign obligations of the 
Mexican Government. 

The records of the present government show 
that President Carranza has asked Congress to 
authorize three loans. The first, amounting to 
150,000,000 pesos, is to be used to pay debts. The 
second loan which Mr. Carranza seeks amounts to 
50,000,000 pesos to be used to rebuild and recon- 
struct the railroads. The third loan, for which 
the authority of the National Congress is asked, 
is for 100,000,000 pesos to establish a "bank of 
issue." 

Something of the financial crisis facing Mexico 
may be gathered from these brief figures : 



38 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

In May, 1916, tlie estimated revenue of the Con- 
stitutionalist Government was four million pesos, 
about two million dollars a month. Fourteen 
months later the estimated revenue was 107,- 
000,000 pesos annually, but the budget called for 
an expenditure of 80,000,000 pesos more than the 
income. The Carranza Government is operating 
on a cash basis now and is spending more than 
it is making, although government officials are 
being paid only seventy-five per cent of their sal- 
aries in cash. This deficit does not take into con- 
sideration any of the foreign obligations. 

It is the contention of the American experts and 
of certain government officials that through gov- 
ernmental economies this deficit can be cut down 
so that it will not be * ' dangerous ' ' and new bonds 
can be issued to replace bonds held in foreign 
countries. 

The other view of the financial situation, which 
I found the predominant one, is that the present 
government cannot continue without the aid of 
foreign capital. This would seem to be the belief 
of President Carranza, too, inasmuch as he asked 
the federal Congress for authority to raise 300,- 
000,000 pesos, that is, $150,000,000. 

On July 7th, 1917, El Universal printed the fol- 
lowing message which President Carranza sent to 
the Chamber of Deputies : 

*'To the Secretaries of the Chamber of Depu- 
ties : for its Constitutional effect : I beg to send 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 39 

you with this message a bill authorising the Ex- 
ecutive to procure in Mexico, or outside, up to 
100,000,000 pesos, gold, to found the sole hank of 
issue authorised by the political constitution of 
the Eepublio promulgated in Queretaro February 
5th, 1917. 

** Surely the Deputies will be persuaded that 
one of the principal causes why agricultural, in- 
dustrial and commercial development of the coun- 
try have not proceeded with the quickness with 
which the re-establishment of order might lead 
one to suppose, is the almost complete disappear- 
ance of credit, and the insufficiency of circulat- 
ing medium which makes difficult the reasonable 
operation of the economic activities of the Na- 
tion. 

''It is for this reason that the Executive be- 
lieves it of imperious necessity to proceed imme- 
diately to organise the sole bank of issue provided 
in the political constitution of the Eepublic. 

"the BANKIISTG SYSTEM 

''The banking systems established by govern- 
ments in the past, although in a way, long ago, 
they fulfilled the necessities of the moment, were 
established on a basis of absolute privilege in fa- 
vour of capitalists without compensation for na- 
tional interests and without foresight. The issues 
of the banks never had reasonable and adequate 
guarantees; some of them enjoyed express privi- 



40 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

leges in regard to the amount of their issue; all 
enjoyed the unjust privilege of exemption from 
taxes and the odious power to apply special primi- 
tive laws for their own benefit. The concessions 
for the establishment of banks of issue were 
granted without providing a logical and proper 
co-operation between them, but giving rise to an 
unreasonable competition ruinous for themselves 
and for the Eepublic. The intervention which the 
Government used to express in institutions of 
credit never was more than merely nominal, and 
among many other cases can be cited this: The 
banks of issue figured their own shares of stock 
among the securities that could be realised upon. 
As a consequence of their unreasonable manage- 
ment and of their bad organisation, the complete 
failure of the old system of institutions of credit 
could be foreseen when the international crisis 
began in 1913. In effect the first manifestations 
of revolution actually were enough to cause the 
banks to ask the government of the usurper for 
the privilege to suspend payments which was con- 
ceded to them, in exchange for the privilege the 
banks of issue made a. large loan to the usurper. 

*'the economic situation op the country 

"When the economic situation of the country 
became grave and before the Constitutionalist 
Government made any decrees at all on institu- 
tions of credit, the situation was getting more 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 41 

difficult every day until these institutions ceased 
to properly operate and soon became merely spec- 
ulators in the paper money issued by the Revolu- 
tionary Government. At the time the bills had 
already suffered considerable depreciation which 
fluctuated between 60 and 90 per cent of discount 
on nominal value. 

''When the duties of the campaign permitted 
the Government of the Revolution to fix its at- 
tention on the financial organisation of the Repub- 
lic a preliminary decree was issued fixing a period 
within which the banks of issue must regulate 
their fiduciary circulation in accordance with the 
general principles of the law of institutions of 
credit. As this decree was issued in Vera Cruz, 
where the necessary estimates for knowing the 
economic situation of each one of the banks in 
detail was lacking, it was believed at the begin- 
ning that many of them would be in condition to 
continue their operations on complying with the 
general banking law. 

''When the Department of Finance came into 
|)ossession of the balance sheets of the majority 
of the banks of issue it was seen that although 
their reserves were in conformity with laws in 
question in relation to their fiduciary circulation, 
the banks were not in condition to continue opera- 
tion because a great part of their assets which 
went into large nominal figures in fact represented 
an insignificant real value. 

"As, on the other hand, the majority of the 



42 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

banks of issue had assumed an attitude of open 
hostility against the Government of the Eevolu- 
tion contributing to the depreciation of the gov- 
ernment paper money and were conducting them- 
selves in a manner against public interests 
through speculations outside of their sphere of 
action, the First Chief believed proper to make 
more radical decrees to put an end at once to the 
defective banking systems then expiring and to 
leave the field open to a better organisation. 

* ' Therefore on the 15th of September last year 
a decree was issued repealing all laws in force 
until that date on institutions of credit and put- 
ting the banks of issue under the direction of 
Boards of Eeoeivers which have been operating 
them up to date. 

"the sole bank of issue 

' * The Constituent Congress which met in Quere- 
taro was perfectly aware of the need of substitut- 
ing the defective banking system by another more 
reasonable and in consonance with the economic 
needs of the nation ; with the result that the new 
Magna Charta provided for the establishment of 
a sole bank of issue. 

''The Department of Finance has been studying 
since then the bill which in due time the Execu- 
tive will submit to Congress on the organisation 
of the sole bank of issue ; but as arrangements to 
obtain new capital must consume much time, the 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 43 

Executive believes it proper to use the time to 
delay as little as may be the organisation of the 
new institution of credit. 



"Elemental prudence dictates that the new bank 
of issue should begin its operation on perfectly 
safe bases because it is the only manner in which 
confidence and credit may return in healthy and 
vigorous form to renew the economic life of the 
Eepublic. 

"If the Executive under my charge does not 
immediately send to Congress concrete bases to 
obtain the initial capital of the new bank, but asks 
authorisation to negotiate with capitalists, it is 
due to the fact that in the present financial con- 
dition throughout the world, it is not easy to fore- 
see the difficulties the Government may encounter 
to induce capitalists to make an investment which, 
although safe, will probably meet with a barrier 
of prejudice and lack of confidence. 

"definite plan of okganisation 

"It is therefore necessary for the Executive to 
determine in advance the possibility of obtaining 
necessary funds for its establishment before sub- 
mitting to the Congress a definite plan for the 
organisation of the new bank. To carry the tem- 
porary arrangements through the Executive needs 



U MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

complete liberty of action, for even the determina- 
tion of the opinion of capitalists and preliminary 
arrangements may cause the early organising of 
the new institution of credit to be changed. In 
any case, the Executive will have the honour to 
submit to the consideration of Congress before 
carrying into effect the arrangements made with 
capitalists together with the general law which 
fixes the bases for the bank of issue. Mexico, 
July 6th, 1917." 

Commenting upon this message El Universal 
said, editorially: 

' ' This was the only newspaper which upheld the 
urgent propriety of creating a large stock of cir- 
culating money for business and the commercial 
and agricultural development of the country. 
The foregoing message confirms the labour of El 
Universal, in all its parts. Furthermore, and 
this is the opportune time to say so, the sum asked 
for by the government appears small to us, for 
we believe it very difficult to obtain any money 
from foreign countries without the previous pay- 
ment of the coupons of our debt, and if this were 
necessary, the amount destined for the sole bank 
of issue would come out much less, and we believe 
that if any foreign loan must be agreed upon, we 
should strive resolutely to procure up to the sum 
necessary to improve our credit in foreign coun- 
tries and to solve economic difficulties in the in- 
terior. ' * 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 45 

In case the Mexican Congress authorises Mr. 
Carranza to raise this amount there are but two 
sources from which it might come. Either Ameri- 
can bankers will take the bonds and sell them or 
the United States Government will loan money to 
the southern neighbour. 

New York bankers will not loan money to Mex- 
ico as long as conditions are unsettled and as long 
as there is danger to American property and 
American citizens in Mexico. These bankers will 
not subscribe to a loan as long as they hold old 
Mexican bonds which have had no interest paid 
on them in six years and which are selling for 
fifteen dollars each in the United States to-day. 
This has been candidly explained to the Mexic-an 
authorities. 

On the other hand, the United States Govern- 
ment cannot loan money to Mexico because this is 
forbidden by the constitution unless Congress 
passes a special act, and it is certain that neither 
the administration will recommend such a loan, 
nor that Congress would pass such an act. By 
the terms of the act which enables the United 
States to loan money to foreign governments dur- 
ing the war it is particularly stipulated that funds 
can be loaned only to Allies. This, too, has been 
explained to the Mexican Government. 

The easiest way and perhaps the most success- 
ful way out of the present financial difficulties in 
Mexico would be for that country to break off 
diplomatic relations with Germany and join the 



46 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

international league of nations, which will follow 
this war, to establish the peace of the world. 

Should the Carranza Government fall there are 
on the horizon to-day no leaders, nor is there a 
group of men, who could take hold and do as well 
as the Carranza Government is doing. There are 
rebel leaders in various parts of the country from 
Villa in the north to Zapata in the mountains near 
Mexico City and General Pelaez in the oilfields 
outside of Tampico. Once this government falls, 
terror will reign again in all parts of the country, 
and as the United States and the Allies are almost 
wholly dependent upon Mexico for oil and various 
minerals, a state of anarchy in Mexico which 
would interfere with the Allies' supply of these 
valuable war necessities could not be permitted. 
If the revolution should break out again the only 
solution would be American intervention, which 
would be not only costly to us but would divert to 
a certain degree the energy of the United States 
which it is so necessary to concentrate upon the 
war in Europe. 

No one knows this better than the Germans in 
Mexico, and although they are "playing" the 
present government they are also preparing for 
the time when there may be trouble in Mexico 
injurious to the United States. At present they 
want to keep Mexico neutral. 

The Carranza Government has been told offi- 
cially that so far as the United States Government 
is concerned it is not in America's interest for 



THE MEXICAN PUZZLE 47 

Mexico to declare herself an Ally, but entirely in 
the interests of Mexico. Whether President Car- 
ranza and his government will realise this, and 
whether, even if they do, they will be able to carry 
through a break with Berlin, are unanswerable 
questions. One must await developments. 

* ' Will Mexico be a friend or a foe of the United 
States?" That is to-day an insoluble puzzle. 

Note: In Appendix A will be found the bills presented to the 
Chamber of Deputies regarding the remedies for the financial 
crisis as they were printed in El Universal. 



CHAPTER in 



BEBELS AND EEVOLUTIONS 



NEEDLE your way through the crowded 
streets of Mexico City or motor to the sub- 
urbs and you will rub sleeves, exchange 
glances with, or pass along the road, rebels, ex- 
rebels and honest soldiers. Saunter or drive 
about the capital and you will see, face to face, 
the individuals who present the biggest problem 
of reconstruction in Mexico. You will encounter 
a sufficient number of the army of 114,000 to con- 
vince you that even if the payrolls are padded 
there are large groups of men actually drawing 
salaries. 

In mid-August, 1917, a cousin of General Za- 
pata, the bandit chief of the state of Morelos 
where the sugar plantations are, surrendered with 
"two thousand men" to the national government. 
Those who wished to join the army of the Ee- 
public were permitted to do so. The week before 
these men were bandits. Within seven days they 
became soldiers. 

Not all of the peons who join the national army 
are patriotic, a fact which causes considerable 
trouble in the country districts. Sometimes, after 

48 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 49 

the ex-rebels have been with the government 
forces long enough to get new rifles and several 
rounds of ammunition, they trek to the mountains 
to be welcomed by their old chief with a hand- 
shake and an enthusiastic hug, the customary cor- 
dial greeting between Mexican friends. 

One day while I was in Mexico City several 
officials of the British Embassy were motoring 
through one of the suburbs. Approaching a gar- 
rison they saw a soldier, sitting on the curb, smok- 
ing a cigarette. As they passed he shouted: 
*'Stop," and other words which were so mumbled 
they could not be understood. 

The automobile, which had passed the man, 
backed to within a few feet of him and the chauf- 
feur asked what was wanted. Instead of answer- 
ing, the soldier, who was evidently intoxicated, 
continued to puff, and gazed at the foreigners. 
After waiting several minutes and receiving no 
explanation the automobile advanced. Immedi- 
ately the soldier jumped up, recovered his bal- 
ance, and started towards the barracks for his 
rifle. The Englishmen huddled into their seats, 
the chauffeur added gasoline, and before the rebel 
could fire the party was several hundred yards 
away. 

There being no other route to the city the for- 
eigners had to return the same way three hours 
later. Reaching the garrison they saw both sides 
of the highway lined by a company of soldiers. 
A captain, standing in the middle of the road, held 



50 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

up his hand. The car stopped and the soldiers 
stood at attention. 

*'Is this the automobile which was ordered to 
stop a few hours ago while passing here?" the 
officer asked. 

The British officials expected a summary ex- 
ecution, but, having experienced excitement be- 
fore, decided to preserve their calm. 

''Yes, Senor Captain," replied an Englishman, 
*'we were ordered to stop and we did. ..." 

His explanation was interrupted. 

''All right, Senor," politely answered the offi- 
cer. "I wish to inform you that discipline has 
been maintained. You may go, gentlemen." 

Soldiers still at attention, the automobile de- 
parted, but the foreigners could not understand 
whether they or the soldier had been disciplined. 
Inquiries the next day disclosed that the soldier 
had been shot for giving an order without orders 
from an officer. Discipline was maintained by 
execution. 

It is not always the soldiers, however, who are 
to be blamed. I met the manager of a large Amer- 
ican corporation who, for two years, had been 
paying tribute to six generals. Their price for 
"protecting" his property had been between three 
thousand and seven thousand pesos, at intervals 
determined by officers. Automobiles were then 
being shipped into Mexico City by the dozens and 
the generals asked this manager for six autos. 
This manager telegraphed to Detroit for the cars 



a 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 51 

and expected to be able to pay the graft within a 
very short time. A new use, indeed, for motor- 
cars, but the manager and the company were satis- 
fied because the cars cost, delivered in Mexico 
City, about one-fourth of the amount of the 
''protection" formerly rendered. 

Friends of President Carranza will candidly 
admit that the First Chief, when he was fighting 
for recognition and authority, had to accept the 
services of many undesirable men, both officers 
and soldiers. Mr. Carranza and his intimate ad- 
visors know that there are rebels and grafters in 
office to-day. They realise that these men cannot 
be ousted immediately and without cause. If the 
present government were to expell from the army, 
or imprison every officer and soldier who to-day 
is not following orders, the government would be 
overthrown even if the penitentiaries could hold 
all the guilty. For this reason Mr. Carranza is 
working slowly and quietly to eliminate these men 
from his councils and from responsible positions. 
Whether he will succeed is a puzzle the key to 
which has not been found. There are Mexicans 
and foreigners who will tell you that the Carranza 
Government is as certain to fall as the buildings in 
Mexico City are certain to sink; and this latter 
fact no one doubts, as even the National Theatre, 
the so-called "White Elephant" because its mar- 
ble walls are uncompleted, is gradually sinking in 
the mire upon which the capital is built. Others 
will inform you that this government is gaining 



52 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

strength every day and that if it receives financial 
assistance nothing will be able to wreck it. Bnt 
all, pessimists and optimists alike, agree that the 
greatest problems facing the government to-day, 
excepting the financial, are the problem of re- 
construction and the existence of the rebels. 

Finance is, of course, the greatest problem, and 
it is the more puzzling because the problems of 
financing a nation like Mexico are not similar to 
the problems of financing more civilised and en- 
lightened countries. Selfishness and ignorance 
play an even greater role in Mexico than pork- 
barrel politics play in Washington! 

One day I recall when the Chamber of Deputies 
was in session a member called the attention of 
the presiding officer to the lack of a quorum. 
Those who have seen how well the U. S. House of 
Eepresentatives is attended during most of the 
debates will understand such a situation. 

The President of the Deputies summoned the 
Sergeant-at-Arms and ordered him to send the 
members to their seats. Meanwhile the proceed- 
ings waited the arrival of the deputies. After a 
long interval the Sergeant returned, reporting 
that he was unable to procure a quorum. 

''Where are the members?" inquired the Presi- 
dent. 

''They are at the Cashier's window awaiting 
their pay," answered the officer. 

' ' Summon the cashier, ' ' ordered the President, 
and when the latter reached the rostrum he was 




THIS WAS AT ONE TIME A BEAUTIFUL RESIDENCE. 
THIS IS THE REVOLUTIONARY REMAINS 




THE FAMOUS SADDLE MOUNTAIN OF MONTEREY 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 53 

told to close the pay window and not to open it 
again during sessions of the Deputies. 

And a quorum was soon present. 

That incident illustrates one aspect of the 
money problem in Mexico. An incident illustrat- 
ing another aspect came to my attention during a 
conference with a Canadian electrical engineer. 
The company he represented desired to erect poles 
to carry their feed wires from a plant near the 
capital to another city. The line, as mapped, was 
to cross a large plantation owned by Indians. 
The concession was worth between five thousand 
and eight thousand pesos to the company. The 
engineer went to see the Indian. He offered him 
four thousand pesos. 

*'No, no, Senor," protested the Indian. 

''Why not?" asked the foreigner. 

*'No. No four thousand, Senor," said the 
owner. 

"Well, how much then? What da you want?" 
questioned the Canadian. 

"If Senor will fill my sombrero and my son's 
sombrero with pesos, silver pesos, I will give you 
the concession. 

"But," protested the engineer, "four thousand 
pesos are much more than two hats will hold." 

"No, no, Senor, no. You must fill my som- 
brero and my son's sombrero with pesos." 

And the foreigner returned the next day with 
enough pesos to fill the two hats so that the coins 
rolled over the sides. The Indian was delighted. 



54 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

Two sombreros filled with pesos meant something 
to him. Four thousand pesos, that sum was a 
myth. 

It is not the ignorance of the peons or the In- 
dians, however, which makes the financial situa- 
tion in Mexico difficult to solve. It is the igno- 
rance of many officials and leaders regarding in- 
ternational finance. So many Mexicans cannot 
understand the relationship which should exist 
between nations, although they have a clear idea 
of money matters between individuals. 

Discussing the problems of finance and recon- 
struction with Mexican officials one is impressed 
by the fact that so few of these can see the view- 
point of the outside business man, the foreign 
capitalist. Most Mexicans will say that because 
of the rich natural resources of the country any 
foreigner ought to be willing to loan money to 
the government. The resources are here, many of 
them still untouched, they will declare, and if for- 
eign capital invests in Mexico, it should be pre- 
pared to share prosperity or revolution with 
Mexico. 

The pacification of Mexico to-day presents in 
many respects the same problem with which the 
United States Government had to deal after the 
Civil War. The Mexican bandits are, so to 
say, the Ku-Klux Klan of this country. Generals 
Villa and Zapata may be likened to the James 
brothers. The difference is that in the United 
States the bandits attacked American or national 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 55 

property. In Mexico bandits destroy foreign 
property. The most popular cry of the revolu- 
tionists has been "Down with the foreigners who 
exploited us." Thus our neighbour south of the 
Eio Grande faces some of our problems of the 
late Sixties with the added difficulty that when- 
ever the highwaymen operate there it causes an 
international as well as an internal crisis. 

The operations of Villa in the North have agi- 
tated not only foreign business interests, but the 
American people. What Zapata has done dis- 
turbs the Mexicans the most, although he, too, is 
j opposed to foreigners. 

' The Carranza Government has sent several 
military expeditions into Morelos in an attempt 
to crush Zapata. As the soldiers marched through 
the state in search of Zapata's army they met 
only the most peaceful citizens. No one knew 
I where Zapata was ! No one had seen his army ! 
I Zapata was clever enough not to fight. He or- 
I dered all his soldiers to bury their arms and 
I plough their fields. When the Carranza forces 
I left, the army appeared, and it was, and still is, 
j unsafe for any one to go through the state. The 
government has attempted to stop shipments of 
' ammunition to Zapata, but this has not been suc- 
cessful, as officers and soldiers in the govern- 
ment 's army have sold munitions to Zapata. Now 
the government, suspicious of certain officers and 
'men, is laying a trap for them, and if they are 
caught they, too, will be ''disciplined." 



56 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

Anotlier demand of the revolutionists has been 
for ''land." Even the present government sym- 
pathises with this demand, and the first endeav- 
ours of President Carranza to fulfil promises 
made during his campaign are being made in the 
little belligerent state of Morelos. It is, in point 
of size, the smallest state in the Union. When 
the Spaniards settled in this country they gave 
to each town and city what was called the 
"ejidos." This was the granting of one league of 
land around the original town or city limits to 
the inhabitants to be worked by the community. 
During the development of Mexico this league of 
land has been given to outsiders or to farmers 
having property nearby. Many towns have lost 
their ' ' ejidos. ' ' This is particularly true in More- 
los, and the "good" citizens of this fighting state 
want back this land. So the present government 
is attempting a new means of pacification. It is 
returning this property to the community. Simul- 
taneously the government is announcing that all 
political rivals, who swear allegiance to the gov- 
ernment, will be pardoned. While this movement 
is having all the success the government antici- 
pated, its progress can only be very gradual be- 
cause Zapata, like the Germans, is a propagan- 
dist. He is telling his followers that if they sur- 
render to Carranza they will be executed. He is 
warning the farmers that if they desert him they 
will be downtrodden by the Americans. And the 
people of Morelos are suspicious of "outsiders." 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 57 

This anti-American part of the propaganda is 
very popular. Even the present government, ac- 
cording to many Mexicans, is too friendly to the 
United States. Most of the newspapers of Mex- 
ico City, even those that are pro- Ally in their war 
sympathies, have a grudge against the United 
States. El Democrata, the chief organ of the 
Germans, prints more articles of hate about the 
United States than any other newspaper. Some 
American journals are most effectively aiding the 
Germans in Mexico by demanding armed inter- 
vention. 

j Redencion, another daily, seizes every oppor- 
tunity to stir the slumbering Mexican against the 
''Yankees." On August 9th, 1917, it printed on 
ithe first page a three column cartoon picturing a 
nude woman, tied to a stake, representing the 
revolution. The fire, kindled at her feet, repre- 
jsented the ''enemy" of the revolution, and the 
I fresh logs which had been placed on the flames 
I were labelled: "Yankees," "United States," 
"Friends of the Yankees," etc. Government offi- 
cials who are friendly to the United States, such 
as Senor Don Luis Cabrera, unofficially the Act- 
ing Secretary of the Treasury, and Senor Don 
Manuel Amaya, official introductor of Ambassa- 
dors, are also "enemies." 

El Democrata is one of the morning newspapers 
which does not receive the Associated Press des- 
patches. Its news, telegrams from the United 
States and Europe, are sent to Mexico City from 



58 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

New York by the ' ' Spanish- American News Agen- 
cy." These telegrams, which the United States 
censor was permitting to pass while I was in 
Mexico, were not only intensely pro-German, but 
exceedingly anti- American. 

Before the United States declared war the Ger- 
man Embassy in Washington sent a daily telegram 
to the German Minister in Mexico City, Herr von 
Eckhart. This despatch contained the wireless 
news circulated by the German Admiralty and 
Foreign Office. When the United States declared 
war the service ceased, and an organisation known 
as the " Spanish- American News Agency," with 
headquarters in New York, began to serve El Dem- 
ocrata and several newspapers in South America. 

Judging from the despatches I saw printed, 
this concern succeeded the news service of the 
German government, operating as a Mexican com- 
pany. The '* Spanish- American News Agency" 
was, and doubtless still is, doing more to cause 
trouble between the United States and Mexico 
than any other public agency in the Mexican Re- 
public. 

Another publicity prostitute is La Defensa, an 
afternoon newspaper also controlled by German 
interests. It announces daily some great catas- 
trophe to the United States or the Allies. While 
I was in the capital it proclaimed an American 
revolution. It announced the sinking of several 
American battleships and transports. It fore- | 
casted American intervention and printed the | 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 59 

most astounding *'news" about events in Wash- 
ington. Some of this news had a basis in fact; 
some had none at all. La Defensa receives most 
of its telegrams from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. A 
Mexican who lives in Laredo, Texas, crosses the 
international bridge with copies of American 
newspapers daily and from the Mexican telegraph 
office he telegraphs his untruthful accounts to 
Mexico City. He, too, is a trouble breeder, who 
might, with advantage, be watched by the Depart- 
ment of Justice. 

Although several reports have been made to the 
United States Government about the activities of 
these newspapers, no steps have been taken to stop 
such practices. German propaganda is a sort of 
international dachshund which escapes the eyes of 
the dog catchers by following neutral citizens as 
soon as the Germans go into hiding. 

The general opinion in Mexico City I found to 
be that, as a group, the Germans are working very 
i quietly. Many of these German citizens are re- 
ilated to Americans and they correspond freely 
iwith residents of the United States. They re- 
jceive all of the American newspapers and mag- 
azines and are able to keep almost as well in- 
formed about events in the United States as the 
German Embassy in Washington was before 
|j;diplomatic relations were broken. While it is im- 
!j possible to-day to send information to Berlin from 
Mexico by wireless, the mail route via Cuba is 
still open to Spain, and from that country the 



60 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

German representatives have the use of an nn- 
censored wireless. 

When in the summer of 1917 there were reports 
that German agents in Mexico were plotting 
against the United States President, Carranza 
summoned the German Minister to inform him 
that the government would not permit attacks on 
a friendly government to be hatched on Mexican 
soil. The Germans to-day are working quietly 
with but one object. They believe that after the 
war, when the real fight for raw materials and 
commercial supremacy begins, the greatest possi- 
bilities for Germany will be in Mexico. This | 
country has many of the raw materials which 
Germany will need, and the Germans figure that 
it will be easier for German merchants to buy in 
Mexico, if that country remains neutral, than in 
any of the lands which were belligerents. For 
this reason, alone, it is highly in the interests of 
the Kaiser's Government that Mexico remain 
friendly to Berlin. It is generally believed in 
Mexico that one of the factors determining Presi- 
dent Wilson's policy toward that country was the 
attitude of Latin- America. The Carranza Govern- 
ment was quick to recognise this, and now every- 
thing possible is being done to fuse the bonds be- 
tween Mexico and South and Central America. 
Diplomats from the nations of South and Central 
America who arrived in Mexico during my stay 
were accorded the most enthusiastic receptions. 
At that time the Republic of Argentine sent a new 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 61 

envoy. When he arrived at Vera Cruz a delega- 
tion of Mexican Ministers and officers were sent 
to act as his escort to the capital. In the big 
palace at the port the incoming diplomat was ten- 
dered a banquet at which several speeches were 
made about the value of Latin-American union. 
To these cordial addresses the Argentinian re- 
plied that his country, too, favoured such a union. 

When the speaking had ended, a young general 
(there are many generals under thirty in Mexico) 
arose, and in a long, hesitating, after-dinner 
speech, declared that he believed in the purposes 
of such a union but considered the name an un- 
fortunate one. 

"I propose," said he, "that we call this union 
a Latin-Mexican union and leave the America 
out." 

This general was one of the group of anti- 
American army officers who are pro-German and 
who carry around chips as shoulder straps. 

One might imagine that a government with so 
many internal problems to solve might be spared 
international perplexities. Not so in Mexico. 
Mexico's internal strife is the chief cause of her 
international disputes. There are some radical 
Mexicans who advocate the lynching of all for- 
eigners. Others desire the confiscation of all 
foreign property. This group of radicals was 
influential enough at the Queretaro convention 
held not long ago to insert confiscatory clauses 
in the constitution. Some Mexicans will state 



62 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

that these provisions of the constitution will be 
enforced some day, while others will remark: 

''Oh, but what is a constitution among 
friends ? ' ' 

Nevertheless the chief obstacle to reconstruc- 
tion in Mexico to-day is the lack of confidence of 
foreign investors in the stability and honesty of 
the present government. As long as there are 
rebels and grafting generals about the country, 
and so long as the present government holds 
property confiscated when the Constitutionalists 
were a de facto government, foreigners will be 
sceptical of Mexico. President Carranza and 
his most trusted advisors know this but they are 
still, to a certain degree, hampered by the radi- 
cals, who know nothing and care less about inter- 
national obligations. Where it is possible the 
present government is returning confiscated 
property, even that belonging to the old Cienti- 
ficos, the so-called ''scientific grafters" of the 
Diaz regime. 

When the State Department sent Mr. George 
A. Chamberlain to Mexico City to reopen the 
United States Consulate-General, he selected a 
house on Avenida Juarez which was built by Senor 
Limantour, Secretary of the Treasury under 
President Diaz. The house at the time was occu- 
pied by General Urquizo under confiscation orders 
of the government. Mr. Chamberlain told the 
owners he wanted to rent the place on behalf of 
the United States Government. General Urquizo 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 63 

was ordered to evacuate. When he turned the 
residence over to representatives of the Liman- 
tour estate, who were to rent it to the Consul Gen- 
eral, the palatial home itself was in as good con- 
dition as it was when built, although all the ex- 
pensive furnishings had disappeared. 

While I was at the capital a forestry expert 
who had been sent to Europe years ago by Diaz to 
study the scientific care and planting of trees 
and shrubs returned to Mexico City. President 
Carranza sent for him and asked him to head the 
Forestry Department of the present government. 

These are instances which indicate a new pol- 
icy on behalf of the Carranza Government. Gov- 
ernment officials, including members of the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, assured me that the government 
intended to return all confiscated property as 
soon as this became possible. 

The Carranza Government is to-day operating 
the tramways of Mexico City and all the national 
railroads, even the English road from the capital 
to Vera Cruz. 

Several years ago there were many street car 
systems in Mexico City, all in miserable condi- 
tion. Belgian, English and French investors saw 
the possibility of consolidating these lines and 
the Mexican Tramways Company was organised. 
The same investors to-day own the large power 
plant located about one hundred miles from the 
capital at Necaxa. In peace time this station 
provided all the electric power and light for Mex- 



64 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

ico City, Pachuca, El Oro and other cities. The 
Light and Power Company and the Tramways 
Company are operated as distinct corporations. 

Sometime in 1914 the Carranza forces *' inter- 
vened" and took over the tramways without pay- 
ing the investors interest or compensation. For 
over two years the power company furnished the 
electricity to run the cars free of charge. This 
was confiscated property, pure and simple. 

President Carranza saw that some day the 
tramways would have to be returned to the own- 
ers. He was informed that if they were returned 
in their present condition the company might 
claim millions of dollars worth of damages. So 
the President ousted his former grafting "inter- 
ventor" and appointed a young engineer, Senor 
Francisco Cravioto, as director on behalf of the 
government, responsible to Mr. Carranza alone. 
Since Seiior Cravioto has been in ofSce he has 
paid instalments on the electric power bills 
amounting, up to midsummer 1917, to $40,000 a 
month, and he has turned over a few hundred 
thousand pesos to pay interest on the foreign 
bonds out of many millions owing. Foreigners in 
Mexico City to-day look forward to the time when 
the tramways will be returned to the owners and 
the old debts adjusted. 

This is pointed out by the most optimistic for- 
eigners as an example of what treatment foreign 
business interests may expect from the Carranza 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 65 

Government where the business men show a will- 
ingness to co-operate. 

The government is in need of financial assist- 
ance. All problems of reconstruction virtually 
rest upon the possibilities of this government re- 
ceiving a loan. Granted a loan of $150,000,000 
the most reliable foreigners in the capital believe 
that Mexico will experience more prosperity than 
it did under the Diaz regime. To-day the gov- 
ernment is minting gold and silver as fast as 
possible and all the banks in the Republic are 
''granting" so-called "forced loans" of gold and 
silver which they have on deposit. 

These, then, are some of the problems of recon- 
struction in Mexico. The nation is passing 
through a trying, tempting transition period. 
Government officials have had practically no ex- 
perience directing big business enterprises or in 
administrating government affairs. Every ele- 
ment which has in the past contributed to failure 
is present in Mexico to-day and very few of the 
requirements of success are to be found. There 
are hatred, jealousy, suspicion, graft, intrigue and 
the baneful influence of "relatives" who have 
been appointed to office. Patriotism, sincerity, 
good-will, faith, honesty and confidence are lack- 
ing. But despite all these national elements the 
Carranza party is the strongest one in Mexico, 
and there are, I repeat, on the horizon no other 
parties or leaders who could summon the support 
which is being given to President Carranza. 



66 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

As I have just said, tlie government has been 
seeking the friendship of the nations of Latin and 
Central America. But the ''unkindest cut of all" 
came from one of these nations. 

In the United States it is understood that the 
revolution was started against Diaz, the ''Dicta- 
tor, ' ' and many people in Mexico will tell you that 
the greatest benefit of the revolution was the over- 
throw of the "Don Porfirio." But there are, per- 
haps, some places where this is not understood, or 
if it is, then Uruguay has a delightful sense of 
humour. 

One of the things the present government has 
done has been to change the names of all streets in 
the capital named after saints. Avenue San Fran- 
cisco, the famous business thoroughfare, is called 
"Francisco I. Madero." To carry out the gov- 
ernment policy of winning the Latin countries 
"Calle San Agustin" was changed to "Calle Uru- 
guay" and the Uruguay Government was officially 
notified that a street in the capital had been named 
after that country. 

In the course of diplomatic time, which is meas- 
ured neither in hours or days except when ulti- 
matums are sent, Uruguay replied that it was 
highly honoured by the act of the Mexican Govern- 
ment and had decided to change the name of one 
of the streets in their capital to the "Avenue of 
Porfirio Diaz ' ' in honour to the great Kepublic of 
Mexico ! 

Although this method of honouring foreign 



REBELS AND REVOLUTIONS 67 

countries is frequently exhibited in the telephone 
books, I was not able to find any streets named 
for the United States. I passed, on several occa- 
sions however, a bronze statue of George Wash- 
ington, two blocks from the American Embassy on 
the Plaza de Dinamarca, where the First President 
of the United States stands with his right hand 
extended and his left holding his three-cornered 
hat. But the bronze table which tells who this hero 
is has been removed and George Washington to 
a passer-by might be any one of a number of local 
or international heroes. 



CHAPTER IV 

GERMANY ^S ALLY AT TAMPICO* 

AMERICAN warships are stationed at Tam- 
pico to-day to watch Germany's ally in Mex- 
ico. From time to time one of them lifts 
anchor, steams out of the Panuco River and pa- 
trols the Gulf Coast. Suspicious ships are exam- 
ined, wireless messages are picked up, and night 
and day the trained eyes of the lookouts search 
the seas for hostile periscopes. When one returns 
the other slips away under cover of darkness to a 
secret destination. 

From the Government wireless tower at Arling- 
ton, Virginia, the Navy Department directs the 
movement of these ships as it plans Uncle Sam's 
moves on the great international oceanic chess- 
board. Eternal vigilance is the price of peace at 
Tampico, the greatest oil port in the world. From 
the jungle sixty miles away flows the endless 
stream that propels and lubricates the Allied mili- 
tary machine; for the weapons with which the 
United States, England and France are fighting 

* A friend in Mexico City wrote the author that the article 
in the Saturday Evening Post which is a part of this chapter 
was not permitted to be circulated in the Kepublic. 

68 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 69 

the dictators of the Central Powers in European 
waters, on land and in the air, are dependent upon 
Tampico for fuel oil, gasoline and lubrication. 

Because Germany's ally, the I. W. W., operates 
in Tampico our battleships cruise in Mexican ter- 
ritorial waters to protect this oil basin without 
which the war cannot be won. 

A few months before I arrived in Mexico agents 
of the Industrial Work e rs of the World organised 
a strike along the docks in an attempt to tie up 
all shipping at the port of Tampico. Money was 
sent from New York by German agents to Tam- 
pico to be used against the oil companies and the 
Allies. A special messenger carrying fourteen 
thousand dollars was spotted as he landed. At 
that time the quick intervention of United States 
naval officers and the co-operation of the man- 
agers of the oil companies and the Mexican au- 
thorities aborted the German plot. The strike 
failed and the I. W. W. leaders were temporarily 
discredited ; but to-day the same plotters, inspired 
by the same foreigners and financed by the same 
interests, are working through the Labourers' 
Union and the Union of Port Mechanics — the L W. 
W. in sheep's clothing. I found them preparing 
the workers for another lockout by urging the men 
to strike for higher wages, though the wages being 
paid were the highest in the world for this kind 
of labour. The I. W. W. propaganda is as lawless 
as the German agitation in Eussia. but always one 



70 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

American mau-of-war has its eyes on tlie city. 
The captain in command, the United States consul 
and the representatives of the American and 
British oil companies are watching, working and 
waiting. 

The German-paid Industrial Workers take ad- 
vantage of every event to incite the labourers, the 
poor peon puppets of the ruthless leaders. They 
are paid and inspired by German influences, as 
even Herr Mueller, the Austrian consul, acknowl- 
edged. When the governor of Arizona, for ex- 
ample, shipped several hundred disloyal miners 
out of his state the following appeal was printed 
and scattered through the streets like dirty snow ; 

WOEKEKS AND ENEMIES 

The Union of Port Mechanics having knowledge 
that 2,000 striking mine workers of Bisbee, Ari- 
zona, U. S. A., have been deported to the Her- 
manas Desert, New Mexico, being thus compelled 
by force of rifles and machine guns to desert their 
families, who remain there by the lawless work of 
the enemies of the working class in the most 
frightful misery and sutfering the greatest pri- 
vations : 

For this reason this Union, in a spirit of human- 
itarianism and companionship, PROTESTS and 
CUESES this action accomplished by the steel 
kings, and publishes its discontent publicly against 
all who act arbitrarily, restricting the right of 




THE U. S. WARSHIPS AT ANCHOR IN TAMPICO HARBOR. 
THEY GUARANTEE THE OIL SUPPLY FOR THE 
UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND 




AN OIL GUSHER AT TAMPICO. THIS IS THE WAY THE OIL 
COMES OUT BEFORE THE WELL IS CAPPED 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICQ 71 

freedom to those who with pride call themselves 
workmen. 
For the Union of Port Mechanics. 

The Committee. 



AIT INJUEY TO ONE IS AIT INJURY TO ALL 

In addition to the handbill propaganda the I. W. 
W. publishes one daily and one weekly newspaper, 
and the editors and writers have all come from the 
United States since Congress declared war against 
the Grerman Government. 

But the I. W. W. is not the only lawless organ- 
isation with which the oil companies have to con- 
tend. While the Carranza Government controls 
the city of Tampico, General Don Manuel Pelaez, 
one of the rebel leaders, is the king of the oil 
fields. President Carranza 's authority extends 
only eight miles from the city limits and along 
the railway line to Monterey, the industrial city 
in Northern Mexico. The direct railway line from 
Tampico to Mexico City is blocked. Senor Car- 
ranza 's officials control the docks and the tank 
reservoirs near the city. On the other side of the 
Neutral Zone, or Mexico's No Man's Land, watch 
the Pelaez soldiers. General Pelaez controls the 
beginning. President Carranza the end, of the oil 
business. Pelaez taxes the production; Carranza 
taxes the exportation. Pelaez and his army — esti- 
mated at three thousand to twenty-seven thousand 
men, depending upon the authority quoted — get 



72 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

forty thousand dollars a month protection money 
from the oil companies. Carranza gets one hun- 
dred thousand dollars in taxes every month from 
the Standard Oil Company; two hundred thou- 
sand dollars a month from the Huasteca Petro- 
leum Company, and more from the Lord Cowdray 
interests. The oil producers maintain Pelaez, his 
soldiers and his government, and they contribute 
more than any other foreign interest toward the 
revenues of the present Mexican Government. 

But — and this is where the story of King Pelaez 
begins — the trouble at Tampico has not been in 
the territory controlled by the bandit, but within 
the city limits, dominated by the central govern- 
ment. There have been no strikes in the oil dis- 
tricts where this black, crude product gushes from 
the earth at the rate of nearly a million barrels a 
day. No American lives have been lost ; no Amer- 
ican or European property has been destroyed. 

In Tampico itself strikes have occurred and may 
develop at any time. No one can tell what a com- 
bination of I. W. W. agitators and German in- 
triguers may do. But the curious thing is that 
the oil companies are satisfied. 

*'We believe," remarked one of the managers, 
"and the United States believes, that as long as 
we are at war with Germany it is best to leave 
well enough alone. We are getting oil out of 
Mexico. That is our part. That is what the 
United States and Great Britain want. That is 
what the companies want." 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 73 

' * But how are you going to adjust this situation 
finally?" I asked. 

"Quien sabe?" they answered. They don't 
know. No one else seems to know. But of this 
they are certain: They don't want President 
Carranza to control the oil fields, especially dur- 
ing the war. They fear that if his generals con- 
trol the wells they will submit to German influ- 
ence and demand a prohibitive tax under threat 
of cutting the pipe lines. The oil companies are 
opposed to the policy of the United States Gov- 
ernment in lifting the embargo on war material, 
because they maintain that if the present govern- 
ment begins an attack upon Pelaez the oil com- 
panies will suffer. They declare that the only 
thing that maintains peace is the lack of ammuni- 
tion. 

Time was when the oil interests were under the 
thumb of General Pelaez. To-day Pelaez and his 
chief insurgent, General Enriquez, are ruled by 
the companies ; but the relations, at that, are very 
cordial, though some of the smaller oil companies 
do not feel this way. 

I was sauntering through the hot streets en 
route to my hotel one day when I met the secre- 
tary of one of the small but important companies. 

"I have some documents that may interest 
you," he said, "providing the name of our com- 
pany is not used. We have just been held up for 
six thousand dollars." 

T accompanied him to his office, where he showed 



74 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

me the correspondence he had had with General 
Enriqnez, the so-called brains of the Pelaez Gov- 
ernment because he is the only educated man on 
the rebel leader's staff. 

One of the notices in Spanish, as translated, 
reads : 

EEVOLUTIONAKY AEMY 

Pelaez Division Military Command 

CIRCULAE 

I bfeg to advise you gentlemen that twelve days 
are conceded to you, counting from this date, in 
order that you may please cover your debts which 
you have pending with this military command. 
It is understood that if the same are not paid 
within the term specified that I shall be obliged 
to proceed in a manner I may deem convenient. 

LIBEETY, JUSTICE AND LAW 

Juan Casiano, Mex., August First. 

Eneiquez. 

The three impressive words — Liberty, Justice, 
Law — ^make up the motto of the Pelaez Govern- 
ment. Though one is tempted to look for prac- 
tical evidences of the motto, one does not, because 
it might not be safe ! Explorations in an oil jun- 
gle should be limited to oil. At least that is what 
I was advised. 

It is not safe, either, to send money to Pelaez 
or Enriquez, except by trusted messenger. The 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 75 

danger is not so much that the money might be 
lost or stolen as that some government authority 
might hear of it and you might be arrested for 
giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the Mex- 
ican Government, The cautious policy is always 
the safest in Mexico. This company, of course, 
knew the rules of the game and despatched the 
twelve thousand pesos to Enriquez. A note thank- 
ing the general for his services in protecting the 
company's properties accompanied the tribute. 
A few days later General Enriquez acknowledged 
it in the following manner : 

Appreciable Sir: I take note of your courteous 
letter of the second instant, and in reply I wish 
to state that I take pleasure in offering myself to 
your orders. 

Your true and attentive servant, 

Enriquez. 

A few months before this when conditions were 
less settled — one might say less unsettled, too — 
King Pelaez used to require unusually large sums 
at irregular intervals. But this was not an ap- 
proved business method in the United States, so 
it was explained to Pelaez, who a few years ago 
was an ignorant rancher, and Pelaez was con- 
vinced that he should receive his taxes regularly, 
as all governments do. Pelaez has a teachable 
mind ! 

One time Pelaez demanded twenty thousand 



76 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

dollars from one of tlie companies. The corpora- 
tion had already paid a large snm and could not 
afford to meet his requirements ; but Pelaez was, 
at the time, an unlimited monarch. He made war 
or peace as freely as the German Kaiser. And 
inasmuch as Pelaez had the army to destroy the 
company's wells the treasurer knew the taxes had 
to be paid, so he bought twenty thousand dollars 
in counterfeit money and gave it to Pelaez. The 
general did not examine the bills, and everything 
was satisfactory. 

The next day Pelaez paid his soldiers, and when 
they attempted to pass it in the small villages the 
shopkeepers refused anything but metal coin. 
The general notified the treasurer and demanded 
real money immediately. The treasurer explained 
that he could not come to camp for several days 
but that he would adjust the matter. It was quite 
evident that a mistake had been made ! 

Three days later he appeared at Pelaez 's head- 
quarters. 

"Where is that money? " he asked. 

Pelaez handed it back. The treasurer took from 
his pocket a rubber stamp that he had had made 
and, one by one, stamped each bill with the fol- 
lowing : 

Money of the Pelaez Govebnment. Good. 

"Now if you can't get your soldiers to accept | 
this money of your own government," the treas- ! 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 77 

urer stated, ''I don't think much of your govern- 
ment. ' ' 

Pelaez was impressed. All governments should 
have their own currency. Now Pelaez had his! 
The soldiers accepted the money, and so did the 
shopkeepers! The twenty thousand dollars cost 
the treasurer two hundred dollars. 

But not even a peon king can be fooled the same 
way twice. Another company tried to give Pelaez 
counterfeit money, but this brought the following 
notice to all companies from General Enriquez: 

EEVOLUTIONARY ARMY 

Pelaez Division Military Command 

CIRCULAR 

In view of the fact that in the circulation of 
the new ten-dollar gold pieces — twenty pesos — 
many counterfeit coins are coming out, I have to 
request of you gentlemen that in the future you 
will please make your payments in coins of prior 
coinage or in five-peso pieces. 

liberty, justice and law 

Enriquez. 
Juan Casiano, Mexico, August 1, 1917. 

These are only a few of the many interesting 
circulars and letters that were shown me by the 
oil companies. One does not wonder why the com- 
panies do not protest when one learns how im- 



78 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

portant the protection by Pelaez and Ms band of 
bandits is. These figures, taken from the records 
of the United States consulate at Tampico as fur- 
nished to the State Department by Claude I. Daw- 
son, the consul, show that during the first six 
months of last year 24,376,824 barrels of oil in all 
forms were exported. 

An illuminating table follows on page 79. 

This calculation, however, is far below the pos- 
sible production of the Tampico fields. With the 
present equipment, pipe lines, pumping stations 
and wells the oil companies operating can produce 
as much as a million barrels of oil a day, but if 
any more oil were produced there would be no 
ships to carry it away. The submarine losses are 
felt in Tampico too. 

A million barrels of oil every twenty-four hours 
— enough, seemingly, to fill the Hudson River, if 
the basin of that river off Manhattan Island ever 
went dry ! 

The largest producing companies in the Tam- 
pico district are El Aguila, the Mexican Eagle 
Company, belonging to Lord Cowdray, and the 
Huasteca Petroleum Company, founded by Mr. 
E. L. Doheny, of Los Angeles. These two cor- 
porations have the most wells and the largest 
wells, measured by daily capacity. Both com- 
panies have big camps in the oil jungle. At the 
Cowdray camp at Terra Armeria General Pelaez 
lives with his staff and soldiers. General Enri- 
quez and his staff live at Juan Casiano, the big- 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 



79 



TOTAL OIL SHIPPED FROM JTAMPICO, JANUARY 
TO JUNE, 1917, INCLUSIVE 

Statement Prepared hy Mr. Claude I. Damson, U. S. 
Consul at Tampico 

BARRELS 
Crude Oil Distillate Reduced Topped Kerosene 



January, 1917 

United States 2,018,733 

Mexico 176,218 

Foreign Countries 234,799 



Total 2,429,750 

February, 1917 

United States 2,081,245 

Mexico 400,424 

Foreign Countries. . . . 494,027 



Total 2,975,696 

March, 1917 

United States 3,087,903 

Mexico 403,832 

Foreign Countries .... 589,716 



Total 4,081,451 

April, 1917 

United States 2,849,994 

Mexico 271,134 

Foreign Countries 866,407 

Total 3,987,535 

May, 1917 

United States 3,072,181 

Mexico 281,296 

Foreign Countries 445,023 



Total 3,798,500 

June, 1917 

United States 2,719,520 

Mexico 298,594 

Foreign Countries 523,182 



414,100 105,500 



70,000 357,700 



59,000 557,750 



19,000 



60,000 



128,000 443,000 61,000 



90,000 407,546 40,000 



135,000 494,000 73,000-48,000 



Total 3,541,296 



Total 20,814,228 896,100 2,365,496 

Grand Total. . . 24,376,824 barrels 



253,000-48.000 



80 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

gest Doheny camp. The Standard Oil Company, 
the Mexican Gulf Company and the Texas Com- 
pany are the largest refiners of oil. They pur- 
chase the crude oil from many of the small pro- 
ducers and make gasoline, fuel oil, kerosene and 
thirty other products, which they ship to all parts 
of the world. 

''Who is Pelaez?" I asked in Tampico. 

"An ignorant Mexican rancher," was the uni- 
versal reply. "He is a revolutionist, like all of 
us, against the Carranza Government. He has a 
loyal army that protects our property and work- 
ers. Pelaez is king of the police in the oil dis- 
tricts. ' ' 

"And Enriquez?" I questioned. 

"A Mexican doctor," answered the foreigners, 
' ' cultured, educated, refined, and a thorough gen- 
tleman. He had a drug store in Tuxpan — another 
port on the Gulf of Mexico, pronounced as if 
spelled T-u-s-p-a-n. When the revolution broke 
out the Carranza troops burned his store. He lost 
forty thousand pesos and joined the forces against 
the First Chief of the Constitutionalists. He is 
fighting in the field to-day, awaiting the time when 
a responsible government will be established in 
Mexico City. Then he will go back into business. ' ' 

I was talking to one of the producers one day 
when he asked whether I would like to meet Pelaez 
and Enriquez. 

"The oil king?" I asked. "Certainly! Long 
live the king ! ' ' 




THE GUSHER OF THE CERRO AZUL OIL WELL — 6oO FEET HIGH 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 81 

When one is in Mexico one must do as tlie 
Mexicans do! One must shout "Long live Pe- 
laez!" when one is in his territory. 

It is a safe policy anyway always to be Mex- 
ican to a Mexican. I was lunching one day with 
an American official who had been sent into this 
country to meet the various factions. He told 
me the difficulties he had in being Mexican, but 
he said it paid him, and he cited the following 
instance : 

He was in a small coast town, where he called 
to pay his respects to the governor. He desired 
a friendly talk and knew the best place would be 
about a banquet table, so he invited the general 
and his staff to dinner. The officer was bashful. 
That, indeed, was unusual. The general sent 
word that while he would enjoy lunching with 
American officers he was compelled to excuse him- 
self because he had not been trained to dine with 
such high personages! The American and his 
staff were shocked upon finding a general who did 
not proclaim hourly what a great, accomplished 
gentleman he was even if, two years ago, he was 
a night watchman in Vera Cruz. The Americans 
urged the general to come, and he did. 

Before the guests arrived the visitors held a 
conference and the chief said: 

''General Blank, commander of the State of 
Blank, is coming to dinner to-night. I want every 
one of you gentlemen to take your table manners 
from him. If he eats soup with tortillas, chicken 



82 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

with his fingers and drinks out of the finger bowl, 
every man does the same ! The guests are not to 
be embarrassed." 

The Americans, in a cordial but not a very pol- 
ished manner, welcomed the Mexicans. At the 
table there was a great deal of talking at first, 
and every one waited for the general to begin to 
eat. But he didn't! And they waited a little 
longer, until the soup was cooled. Finally the 
American official, who had been in Mexico long 
enough to know that one must do as the Mexicans 
do, drank his soup. Without a smile or a mur- 
mur every one did the same. When the meat was 
served fingers and knives were used, and at the 
close of the meal toothpicks instead of finger bowls 
were passed. The general was delighted to think 
that he could eat with Americans and be so con- 
tented ! To this day he is pro- American ! 

I had been in Mexico several weeks, and when 
an opportunity came to see a live bandit I was 
enthusiastic, and I got up as early on the morn- 
ing we left as I did years ago when the circus 
came to Kichmond, Indiana. 

To reach the Mexican oil fields one must travel 
between sixty and eighty miles south of Tampico. 
At the wharf one boards a fast gasoline launch 
at sunrise and travels through the canal and 
Panuco Eiver some twenty miles to a landing sta- 
tion belonging to one of the oil companies. Eight 
miles out of the city one meets a band of eight 
Carranza soldiers. They are on outpost duty to 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 83 

see that no Pelaez followers enter the city. From 
this point on one need not say, ''This belongs to 
one of the oil companies," because everything be- 
low, above and on the earth belongs to some oil 
concern. The Lord Cowdray and the Doheny cor- 
porations have more than a million acres each. 

From this small dock one rides by automobile 
twenty miles farther into the jungle, over the only 
wagon road in this part of Mexico. Another 
launch takes one across Lake Tamiahua to San 
Geronimo. As one glides through the quiet waters 
early in the day one sees thousands of flying fish, 
and at times the horizon is blackened with wild 
duck. There is so much game and there are so 
few hunters that this is an undreamed-of para- 
dise. 

As the launch swerves toward the dock one sees 
several hundred Mexican labourers standing about 
the narrow-gauge railway track, awaiting the de- 
parture of the work train for the fields. 

Puffing along at eight miles an hour the dummy 
engine jerks and whines through the jungle to the 
camp at Juan Casiano. Beside the tracks one sees 
mahogany and oak trees, banana plants, orange 
groves, cornfields, and here and there the straw- 
thatched roof of a peon's home. Men and women 
are dressed in one-piece garments; many chil- 
dren are naked; others like one boy I saw with 
his mother's shirtwaist hanging loosely from Ms 
shoulders. 

Spanish moss, orchids and other plants grow as 



84 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

parasites over the trees, many of whicli are being 
strangled to death by this growth. Many parts 
of this territory have never been explored. Wild 
beasts rule the forests and hills. There are wild 
boars and snakes. Sometimes the latter come up 
on the railway bed for their sun nap. There are 
buzzards, the prehistoric scavengers, and Alice- 
blue butterflies. Beautiful birds of the tropics fly 
from bush to bush. Some places along the line 
the natives have planted corn. Their cattle graze 
along the roadway, and frequently the train stops 
to give the cows time to get off the track. Fields 
are so fertile that the corn averages more than 
twelve feet in height. 

The planting is as primitive as the people are. 
The natives punch a hole in the earth with a stick, 
drop a grain of corn and cover it up. In two 
months they can gather the ears. 

After one has travelled a few miles by train 
one enters the oil fields. Between the hills of the 
rolling country one sees the derricks where wells 
are being drilled. When the oil begins to gush 
out of the hole it is diverted into pipe lines, which 
carry it sixty miles to Tampico. 

Geologists estimate that this country for cen- 
turies has floated on oil — ^but less than eighteen 
years ago American explorers tapped the first 
well. At that time there was only one company 
in the field. To-day there are more than a score. 
Then the land could be purchased for less than 
fifty cents an acre. To-day the cheapest available 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 85 

land rents for five hundred dollars an acre per 
year, and the owners demand royalty on oil that 
may be extracted. The largest well ever discov- 
ered produced a million barrels a day, but only 
for five days. To-day boiling water gushes out 
into the lake. The next largest well is that of 
Cerro Azul. Its capacity is estimated at two hun- 
dred and sixty thousand barrels every twenty- 
four hours. It has been running steadily since 
1914. The best wells produce more than sixty 
thousand barrels a day, and no well is considered 
very productive that does not give up ten thou- 
sand barrels between sunrise and sunrise. There 
is so much oil in Mexico that it gushes out of the 
ground as soon as a hole from two to three thou- 
sand feet deep has been drilled into the mud, lime- 
stone and sand. Some gushers have spouted oil six 
hundred and a thousand feet into the air before 
they were capped. One well emptied more than 
a million barrels into one of the valleys before it 
was capped. 

From the railroad station we rode to the camp 
in a buckboard pulled by four mules. As the 
driver drew the reins General Enriquez saluted 
us. At last we were at one of the headquarters 
of the bandits. With Enriquez were his chief of 
staff, an Indian general, interpreters and soldiers. 
The general is short, heavily built and dark com- 
plexioned. He has long thin fingers, small feet 
and dark brown eyes. He wore a brown army 
shirt, riding breeches and tan boots. Eound his 



86 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

instep were buckled heavy, hand-engraved silver 
spurs. From the cartridge belt hung a forty- 
eight-calibre revolver. 

We sauntered uphill to Enriquez's headquar- 
ters. Bill, the guide, Enriquez and I sat on the 
general's bed. The three chairs were occupied 
by his staff. Pelaez had been there for a confer- 
ence the night before but had left for the Cowdray 
camp at dawn. The conversation began with Car- 
ranza and ended with the President. But most 
of the talking was done by an Indian general who 
had just returned from a thirty-five-day hunt for 
Indians and others loyal to Carranza. His im- 
agination was as unlimited as the oil fields and 
he gloried in having a foreign audience. His last 
battle was his most thrilling one. 

It happened in this way : The Mexican Govern- 
ment sent rifles and ammunition to General Ma- 
riel, one of the Carranza leaders along the Gulf 
of Mexico, who immediately armed the half- 
civilised Teptzintla and Santa Maria Indians. 
These wild men started to raid the outskirts of 
the oil district and Enriquez 's Indian general with 
a band of troopers was sent out to halt them. In 
thirty-five days of wilderness fighting two hun- 
dred Indians were accounted for, and then the 
general entered a small town where he found seven 
bandits — ^he called the Carranza troops bandits — 
terrorising the village. Five were killed in the 
first skirmish, but the general was shot four times 
in his right knee and one of his soldiers was killed. 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 87 

A Carranza soldier, he said, emptied his auto- 
matic into the side of the trooper and then shoved 
the pistol into the wound. When the remaining 
two were captured they were executed. 

The general told almost unbelievable tales. He 
said the wild Indians in a war dance, a few days 
before he arrived, had thrown women into the 
flames as sacrifices. This is the Liberty, Justice 
and Law of the oil jungle ! 

For the benefit of the auto owner who, like my- 
self, did not know how gasoline is produced, per- 
mit me to make this explanation: The crude oil 
as it comes from the earth is pumped to Tampico, 
where the refineries are located. Some is shipped 
to refineries in the United States. This oil is 
heated in large tanks to three hundred and fifty 
degrees. From these tanks it flows into cooling 
tanks; the heavy oil goes to the bottom and the 
vapour, or gasoline, flows out near the top. Gaso- 
line is but the light ingredient of heavy mineral 
oil. 

When the crude oil reaches Tampico the trouble 
begins. The Mexican Government taxes crude oil, 
gasoline, distillate and other by-products so heav- 
ily and the expenses of shipping it to England 
and the United States are so great that crude oil 
which costs twenty cents a barrel in Tampico must 
sell for sixty cents a barrel in Texas. 

All the oil ships in and out of Tampico must go 
through the Panuco River, which flows into the 
gulf seven miles from the eity. The river must 



88 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

be dredged constantly to enable the ocean-going 
liners to reach the docks. Throughout the revolu- 
tion all oil companies have been paying six cents a 
barrel bar tax to keep the river deep enough for 
their ships, but for nearly four years little dredg- 
ing has been done. 

A few months ago the central government noti- 
fied the oil companies that an American dredging 
concern had been engaged to work in the river 
and that the oil companies would have to pay the 
costs, amounting to one hundred thousand dollars 
a month. 

With conditions so unsettled and dangers lurk- 
ing in every business deal the oil companies to- 
day are doing no development work. They are 
taking no chances. They believe that Article 
Twenty-seven of the Mexican Constitution permits 
the government to confiscate their property and 
they declare that they cannot afford to spend more 
money in Tampico until they know how the gov- 
ernment intends to interpret this. 

The companies are literally between the jungle 
and the sea. No one knows what move the Car- 
ranza Government may make. No one knows what 
steps the United States and the Allies will take 
to protect the oil country if the central govern- 
ment begins an invasion, as President Carranza 
announced it would do, in his speech before Con- 
gress on September 3, 1917. At the opening of 
Parliament he proclaimed his intention of driving 
the rebels out of the oil fields. ' ' They have been 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 89 

supported by foreign oil companies," he declared. 
There is no doubt about the truth of this latter 
statement, but the companies maintain that if the 
fields were in the hands of the Mexican Govern- 
ment the government could maintain a strangle 
hold on the Allies — and Pelaez, they declare, is 
pro-Ally. The oil companies want a status quo 
until the war in Europe is over. Then, and per- 
haps sooner, the real fight about Tampico will be- 
gin. This part of the Mexican problem is not 
settled. 

But on the surface of things in Tampico there 
is not a ripple. Pelaez cannot come into the city 
and the Carranza forces cannot go into the coun- 
try without a fight. No Man 's Land separates the 
belligerents here as it does in France. 

The I. W. W. and the Germans are taking ad- 
vantage of this chaotic situation, and they are 
preparing for eventualities. Some day there will 
be a clash in the oil fields or in Tampico, and when 
that hour comes the world will learn whether Ger- 
many's ally or the United States and her Allies 
control the situation. 

Further trouble in Tampico or in the oil dis- 
tricts will benefit Germany directly because it will 
affect the oil supply of the United States and 
Great Britain. 

No one seems to know the solution in Tampico, 
but every foreigner hopes that the ammunition 
which the Mexican Government has obtained from 
the United States will not reach the Gulf of Mex- 



00 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

ico. The foreigners want a status quo until Ger- 
many is defeated. Then, then indeed, something 
will have to be done to settle the jurisdiction over 
the oil territory. Tampico oil is a world neces- 
sity. Anarchy, another German ally, cannot rule 
forever. Where there are smouldering flames of 
discontent there will be smoke. 

Before I went to Tampico the Chief Mexican 
Manager of one of the largest oil producing com- 
panies gave me a memorandum regarding the oil 
supplies of the Allied powers. I print this here 
as it contains a great deal of valuable information 
and shows how vital Tampico is to England and 
the United States in the war against Germany. 

The writer is a man of very firm convictions 
and the interpretations of clauses in the Mexican 
Constitution and his opinions regarding the gov- 
ernment are his, not mine! I present the mem- 
orandum here because it is the statement of an 
expert. 



MEMOEANDUM. THE ALLIES' OIL SUPPLIES 

By an American Business Man 

1. Petroleum and gasoline are the two most 
important war materials to-day. Neither aero- 
planes, tanks, motor trucks, submarines, chasers, 
destroyers nor battleships can run one foot with- 
out one or the other. 

2. To survey the world's production of crude 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 



91 



oil, necessary for tlie manufacture of gasoline, 
Diesel oil and navy fuel : 

The Dutch East Indies and Burmah: Too far 
away to serve as a source of supply in the present 
shortage of tank steamers. 

Persia: Remote, and on the Mediterranean 
route. Submarines have destroyed many tankers 
on this route. Production small. 

Russian Fields: Available only to the Russian 
Allies. 

Roumania: In Grerman hands. 

Galicia: In Austrian hands. 

United States: Practically the only source of 
crude oil and gasoline supply for our allies and 
our own forces. 

But see annexed report of Hearing before Sen- 
ate Committee, No. 1, page 32. The Department 
of the Interior gives the following figures : 



Year 


Consumption 


Percentage 
Increase 


Production 


Drawn from Stock 


1914 


247,015,396 
276,399,918 
312,000,000 
353,000,000 


12 
13 
13 






1915 
1916 
1917 


281,000,000 
296,000,000 
286,990,000 


None 
18,500,000 
67,000,000 



Note that the Interior Department calculates 
a shortage of 67,000,000 barrels of petroleum in 
the United States for purely peace purposes for 
1917. Elsewhere in the Report of the Hearing, 
note statement by the Bureau of Mines that it cal- 
culates an additional shortage of 20,000,000 for 
war purposes. Since this estimate it has been 
determined to build and operate from 35,000 to 



02 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

100,000 aeroplanes. This will take an additional 
amount of from 3,000,000 to 9,000,000 barrels of 
high-grade gasoline, which production will make 
an additional shortage figured at from 40,000,000 
to 63,000,000 barrels of crude. The total shortage, 
therefore, is aroimd 137,000,000 barrels for all 
peace and war purposes in the United States, 
which, outside of Mexico, is the only practical 
available supply. 

Mexico : Mexico to-day can produce from wells 
already drilled in, how largely capped or cut down, 
1,059,000 barrels per day, and the field is only 
wild-catted. The actual production (crude oil 
sold or put in storage) is at present only about 
50,000,000 per annum, or 137,000 barrels per day, 
most of which goes to the United States. 

Shipments to the United States from Mexico 
are limited by: a. Lack of tankers. The largest 
producing company (Mexican Petroleum Com- 
pany) has turned seven of its tank steamers into 
the British trade. The ships are chartered to the 
British Government. More tankers, however, are 
being completed. 

b. Lack of transportation to tide water. The 
total potential carriage from well to tanker is 
now: 

To Tampico — By river barges 25,000 bbl. per day 

By Huasteca pipe lines. . 75,000 « « « 

By Agnila pipe lines 25,000 « « « 

125,000 " " " 

To Tuxpam— By Penn-Mex pipe line . . 25,000 « " " 

By Aguila pipe lines 50,000 « « « 

Total present capacity pipe and barge . . 200,000 « « « 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 93 

or 73,000,000 barrels per annum. In addition, 
there are at least 9,000,000 barrels in storage at 
Tampico and Tuxpam, ready for tanker transport 
to the United States and her Allies. 

The Mexican Petroleum Company and prob- 
ably the Aguila stand ready to increase pipe line 
facilities up to an additional 50,000,000 barrels 
per iannum if they are only guaranteed protection 
of their governments in the construction and in 
their investment. See testimony of Edward L. 
Doheny in annexed Eeport of Hearing, No. 3, 
page 123. 

The production of the United States can be in- 
creased, if at all, only slightly. The Mexican pro- 
duction is there already. It is in the hands of 
American and British companies which have taken 
the risk and made the great investment to get it. 
If their rights are respected or made respected by 
their governments there will he no shortage of 
petroleum supplies for the United States and the 
Allies in the war. There will actually be a pleth- 
ora. 

n 

But we have to count with the real hostility of 
the de facto government of Mexico, which is no- 
toriously playing with the Germans. In January, 
1917, a packed constituent assembly, at Queretaro 
(membership in which was limited to ''those who 
had served Carranza," or less than 1 per cent, of 
the whole population) adopted a ''constitution" 



94 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

which contains the following provisions pertinent 
to this subject: 

Article 27. In the Nation is vested ownership 
of petroleum and all hydrocarbons. 

.... The ownership of the Nation is inalien- 
able and concessions shall be granted by 

the Federal Government to private parties or 

corporations organised under the laws of 

Mexico. 

Article 28. There shall be no exemp- 
tion from taxation 

Article 123 (Of Labor and Social Welfare) 
XVIII Strikes shall be considered unlaw- 
ful only when the majority/ of the strikers shall 
resort to acts of violence against persons or prop- 
erty. 

Article 27 deliberately confiscates the oil prop- 
erties acquired by British and American com- 
panies. Oil in Mexico has always been the prop- 
erty of the owner of the fee. The companies men- 
tioned have spent large amounts of money to ac- 
quire oil rights by purchase and lease. The effect 
of this ''constitutional" provision, if it is recog- 
nised as legal, is to make Mexican petroleum the 
inalienable property of the Nation. As such, be- 
ing contraband, neutral Mexico cannot allow its 
shipment to belligerent nations. 

Legislation is now before the Mexican Congress 
putting this ' ' constitutional ' ' provision into effect. 

Article 28. The principal oil-producing com- 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 95 

panies entered the field of oil exploration under 
inducement contracts providing that no special or 
export taxes should be levied against their prod- 
ucts. The Mining Law of 1887, never repealed, 
provides that petroleum shall not be specially 
taxed. This article of the constitution of 1917 
puts an end to this protection, violating contracts. 
An excessive export tax on petroleum and gaso- 
line, amounting to from 20 per cent to 50 per 
cent of the value of the oil at the wells, has been 
''decreed," and is in effect and payable in July, 
1917. 

If the principle is accepted, Mexico is in a posi- 
tion to embargo shipments of oil to the Allies by 
increase of the export tax. No friendship toward 
the Allied cause has been manifested by the de 
facto government of such nature as to lead one to 
suspect that Mexico will fail to so embargo ex- 
ports. 

Art. 123. By this article, 49 per cent of a body 
of strikers may legally destroy properties and 
lives. Only when 51 per cent are so engaged is 
the strike illegal enough to justify the interven- 
tion of the authorities. This seems childish; but 
this very "constitutional" precept was invoked 
by the Presidente Municipal and the Jefe de Ar- 
mas of Tampico during the strike in the British 
and American oil termini in May, 1917, to justify 
their refusal to interfere with the ' ' strikers ' ' who 
were carrying torches around the storage tanks. 
Destruction was prevented only by the interven- 



96 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

tion of the American gunboats in the Pamico 
Eiver. The strikers were openly and notoriously 
paid during this tie-up out of the office of the 
German Consul, Eversbusch. 

The Imperial German Empire has a Minister 
in Mexico, Consuls in all important centres, and 
intelligent Germans scattered throughout the 
country. They are hand-picked Germans. They 
are most friendly with the Mexican authorities. 
The Mexican army has many officers of German 
birth and training. Fortunately for the Allies, 
the oil fields are in the hands of a counter-revolu- 
tionist, with a personal interest in the safety of 
the fields. Should he (Manuel Pelaez) be driven 
out by the German-officered Carranzistas, the wells 
now producing would be in danger ; but such dam- 
age as they could do would be repaired within two 
weeks after the arrival of American troops in the 
fields. 

By the "constitutional'^ articles quoted above, 
the Germans have three excellent means of block- 
ing the oil supply of the Allies : 

(1) By protesting against the shipment to 
belligerents of a contraband material declared to 
be the property of the Mexican Government. 

(2) By encouraging the de facto government 
to increase export taxes to the prohibitive point. 

(3) By fomenting strikes in terminals and in 
the fields and attendant legalised destruction of 
oil in storage. 



GERMANY'S ALLY AT TAMPICO 9T 

Assurance of the oil supply is simple : Refuse 
to recognise the de facto Mexican Government as 
a de jure government and make it plain that none 
of the confiscatory and retroactive provisions of 
the ''constitution" shall be enforced. 

If the ''constitution" is enforced, German 
agents have at least three distinct means of end- 
ing the Mexican supply of crude oil, vitally needed 
in the war. If British and Americans in Mexico 
are simply protected in their legally acquired 
rights and properties, by austere demands and 
acts of the American and British Governments, 
There Will Be No Petroleum Shortage. 

Problem: To make the American and British 
Governments see it. 



CHAPTEE V 

THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 

ON one of the main streets of Tampico 
stands a solid one-story cement building 
which, according to a large sign ribboned 
across the top like a banner, is the Agenda Comer- 
cial y Maritima. The members of the firm, judg- 
ing from an announcement in equally prominent 
letters, are Heynen, Eversbusch y Cia. A smaller 
placard near one of the entrances states that this 
is the Consulate of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment; and under the glass cover of the bulletin 
board, also on the outside of the building, are 
notices to German citizens regarding service in 
the Imperial Army. 

I shall not describe the structure further, ex- 
cept to remark that it stands on the sunny side of 
the street and that it is the chief German banking 
institution in this section of Mexico. The descrip- 
tion is not important, except to fix in the reader's 
mind the cementlike reality of the narrative the 
events of the war have woven about the place, for 
this imposing edifice is one of the chief way sta- 
tions on the spider's web of the German Secret 
Service in the republic south of the Eio Grande. 

98 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 99 

Before the United States Congress declared war 
against the Berlin Imperialists, Senor and Herr 
Carl Heynen was one of the active German agents 
in the United States and Mexico. So important 
was he considered by the United States Govern- 
ment, whose detectives found him in the United 
States when war was declared, that he was placed 
in an internment camp, where he lives to-day in 
peace and quiet. Herr Eversbusch, the other 
member of the concern, being the German Consul 
at Tampico, always remained in that city, to direct 
the financial transactions of the institution and 
protect Germany's interests. 

Before America was a belligerent the Agenda 
Comercial y Maritima communicated in code with 
banks and individuals in the United States. When 
a censorship was established these messages were 
stopped ; but the pause was only temporary. The 
State Department announced one day that those 
concerns having business of a confidential nature 
in the United States and Mexico might, by filing 
a copy of the code with the United States censors, 
continued to communicate as in the pre-war days. 

At the time this pronouncement was made the 
American Consul, Mr. Claude I. Dawson, was in 
Washington, and a young vice consul was acting 
in his stead. One day a representative of Herr 
Eversbusch appeared at the Consulate with a code 
of this bank and the statement that, inasmuch as 
the bank did business with American concerns in 
Houston, Texas, and in New York City, it was 



100 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

entitled to the use of its code. The secret docu- 
ment was filed with the American authorities and 
for an indefinite period — the authorities are not 
quite certain how long — this German bank and the 
German Consul in Tampico sent and received 
secret messages to and from the United States. 
The practice was not interrupted until Consul 
Dawson returned to his post. 

Of course it required considerable faith on the 
part of Herr Eversbusch in the inability of the 
United States to discover such an obvious scheme 
at deception; but in this faith in Uncle Sam's 
advertised laxity the German official was dis- 
appointed. He was found out and this line of 
communication was cut, as have been most of the 
lines between German agents throughout the 
world and the Berlin Government. 

I cite this instance to show that, though Ger- 
many has planted and selected her secret-service 
operators in every country on the globe, the Allied 
and American Secret Service offensive against the 
lines of communication between enemy spies and 
their Berlin headquarters has been so successful 
that one may, for the first time during the war, 
speak of the checkmating of the enemy's intelli- 
gence service. Battles in the air have been more 
spectacular, those on land more intense, and those 
on the seas more baffling than the secret battles 
between the belligerent intelligence departments; 
but few have been more important. What, for 
instance, could be more important, so far as the 



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THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 101 

United States is concerned, than the checking of 
the last German spy offensive in Mexico, which 
had for its object a military clash between that 
republic and the United States ? 

The last spy offensive marked the climax to 
German operations on the American continent, 
just as the discovery of German-paid intrigue to 
force peace in Europe has shattered the Imperial 
plans for an Imperial peace. 

Undoubtedly Germany still has her trusted 
agents and their bribed assistants in Washington, 
London, Paris, Rome, Petrograd and other cities ; 
but most of them are like a swarm of wingless 
bees miles away from the hive. The Allies and 
the United States have had to fortify themselves 
against spying as against military attack, and 
their defences to-day are almost flawless. They 
have succeeded in discovering if not in destroying 
the channels through which information was sent 
to and from Berlin. Sometimes, seemingly by 
mere chance, a link has been broken, as in the case 
of the wireless operator on an interned Teutonic 
liner who escaped to Mexico before Congress de- 
clared war. When I was in Mexico City, and even 
before I left the United States, I heard reports 
about secret German wireless stations ; but I was 
unable to establish the location of any German 
tower that was not deaf and dumb, and that had 
any other sign language as a substitute. 

After diplomatic relations between Washington 
and Berlin were severed the chief wireless officer 



im MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

on one of the Hamburg liners formerly tied to a 
Hoboken wharf dismantled and took apart the 
plant on his ship, packed the essential parts in 
trunks and suitcases, and boarded a train for Mex- 
ico. Before April fourth he was safely across the 
international border, bag, baggage and all. 

This wireless operator had been ordered to Mex- 
ico to construct one of the links in the proposed 
chain of communication between this hemisphere 
and the Kaiser's agents in Spain and Germany. 
But he was only one of many suspected Germans 
who escaped from New York before this country 
was formally at war with the autocratic enemy. 
There were many others, who were to spread the 
nets of German intrigue in Cuba, Mexico and Cen- 
tral America, and who left at the same time. By 
June these men were scattered in all the leading 
cities of the South, there to begin their operations 
upon orders from abroad. 

It is perhaps not necessary to state that before 
this wireless operator packed his instrument he 
invoiced and carefully examined it to make sure 
he had all the parts needed. Those that were miss- 
ing he bought through an agent; so when he left 
Hoboken he was certain that every part needed to 
make the wireless plant a success, with the excep- 
tion of the tower and the electric power, was se- 
curely registered in his baggage. 

When he arrived in Mexico City he reported to 
his All Highest officials, and within a short time 
was ordered to rebuild the plant he had taken 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 103 

from the interned liner. With true Teutonic plod- 
ding thoroughness he assembled the parts, only to 
discover that one of the pieces he was certain he 
had packed, because it would be impossible to get 
a substitute in Mexico, was missing. He searched 
his baggage, re-examined the parts, consulted his 
lists, and to his astonishment and amazement 
learned that one of the most important features 
of his instrument was missing. A closer inspec- 
tion of his baggage showed that it had been 
opened. 

Some one — perhaps it is not necessary to say 
who, but some one who evidently knew his scheme 
— had entered his baggage and removed such an 
essential part of the machine that it could not be 
used in Mexico unless the part was imported from 
the United States. And by this time the United 
States was at war with Germany. This man tried 
through many agents to get this part from the 
North ; but at the time I left Mexico City, in Sep- 
tember, 1917, he was still seeking the missing link. 

Some one was just a little bit more clever than 
he ; and that some one must have been an enemy. 

Perhaps it was some one in the United States 
Department of Justice, perhaps some one in the 
British ; or it might have been some one in the New 
York detective service. It really does not matter 
who did the work; but it has meant a great deal 
to the United States to have it impossible for this 
German subject to erect his wireless station in 
Mexico. 



104 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

German efforts in Mexico were divided into 
three classes : the press propaganda ; the business 
intrigue ; and the political endeavours. The press 
work was placed in the hands of Herr von Lubeck, 
a wealthy German merchant, who collected three 
hundred thousand dollars from Germans in Mex- 
ico City as an initial campaign fund. 

About the middle of 1916 it was discovered that 
these various organisations were not only making 
detailed reports to Berlin, but that they were re- 
ceiving instructions from headquarters there. 
This correspondence, which was written as con- 
fidential, was intercepted; and one document, 
which I obtained, discloses in a general way the 
activities of the German agents. 

In order to make possible an efficient secret 
service it was necessary for Germany to spread a 
net over Mexico, as she did over the United States ; 
but in casting this net in the well-known German 
secret manner, it struck snags, and the holes torn 
were so great that the German service in Mexico 
has lost its effectiveness. All the German agents 
in Mexico are known to the Allies. Every move- 
ment is traced, though sometimes it is exceedingly 
difficult to do so; and, though there are Germans 
travelling throughout Mexico all the time, their 
plans are nipped before they are well under way. 
Mexico, which was to be the Spy's Paradise, has 
become the German Spy's Hades. 

Travelling on Mexican trains, I met a large num- 
ber of Germans. On some railroad lines there were 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 105 

more Germans than Americans. When I boarded 
the train at Monterey for Tampico there were four 
Grermans aboard and two Americans. The re- 
mainder were Mexicans. Travellers in the in- 
terior declared that German agents were travel- 
ling in various parts of the country — on business ; 
but through the loyal co-operation of American 
business men and British commercial agents these 
men are so effectively tracked that, even before 
they can do anything to cause trouble, their plans 
are exposed or placed before the Mexican Govern- 
ment. 

At one time Germany tried to place German 
officers in the Mexican Army. At one time there 
were forty active German officers in that army. 
While I was in Mexico they were discharged. The 
Mexicans discovered that they could not be trusted 
in their posts, because, though they were employed 
to drill the Mexican Army, it was learned that 
their ulterior motives and their constant propa- 
ganda against the United States were inimical to 
the best interests of the Mexican Government and 
people. 

There is a great difference between American 
and German activities in Mexico. Time was when 
the Mexicans feared the Americans; when the 
Mexican Government suspected American motives 
and American plans in Mexico. And though that 
time is not past, most Mexicans are beginning to 
realise that, with the exception of a few big finan- 
cial and business interests in the United States, 



106 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

no one, from the Government to tlie majority of 
the American people, desires or would sanction 
American military intervention in that country. 
But the German plans are, almost without excep- 
tion, made with military ends in view. 

Early in 1915 there was organised in Mexico 
City a Union of German Citizens. On April six- 
teenth, 1916, the following report was sent from 
this Union to the Deutscher Wirtschaftsverband 
for Central and South America, with home offices 
at Potsdamerstrasse, 28, Berlin. The significant 
statement was made at that time, less than one 
year before the United States broke off relations 
with Berlin: ''It is not practicable for us to aid 
Germany by force of arms." A bold confession, 
indeed, that they had been thinking of military 
co-operation; but because of the small number ol 
Germans in Mexico it was not practicable to do 
anything which might aid Germany against the 
United States! 

''This is to advise of the organisation of this 
society as far back as June sixteenth last year" — ■ 
1915 — the report began. "As your association 
is occupied in Latin- American countries, our so- 
ciety will pursue the same course here. It is not 
practicable for us to aid Germany by force of 
arms; so our main intention will be to aid all 
possible in an economic manner. 

"The society was founded June sixteenth, hav- 
ing 164 members; and the first committee was 
chosen October twelfth, at which time the propa- 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 107 

ganda was circulated in the capital and through- 
out the interior. At the same time 245 Germans 
of the Empire joined in the capital and 113 from 
the interior, making a total of 522. 

"As you can readily see from reading our stat- 
utes, we will accept none as members save native- 
born Germans, and their nationality must be 
proved beyond doubt. That proscription also per- 
mitted the Imperial authorities to recognise the 
nationality of sixty Germans. Moreover, a great 
number of Germans who, for various reasons, "by 
not observing the ancient regulations, lost their 
nationality,' have regained their standing as Ger- 
mans, and have been rehabilitated under the new 
liberal laws of the association. It is to be hoped 
that excellent results will emanate from this 
source. 

"Up to the present a great number of publica- 
tions on the war have been circulated in the cities 
and throughout the country, dealing with the Ger- 
man viewpoint, by the Ausschuss fiir Verteilung 
von Aufklarungs-Material, who have been work- 
ing for three months ; and a great number of Mex- 
icans have been convinced that we are in the right 
in the methods of conducting the war and in our 
spirit of German culture. 

"Also, the following technical works and serials 
have been distributed : The Great War in Descrip- 
tion ; The Actual War ; The Discourse of the Chan- 
cellor, September 12, 1915 ; and The War and the 
Right, by Dr. Ed. Llorens. 



108 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

''The stories contained in the Herald, of Ham- 
burg, received here in December, met with great 
approval. 

' ' The circulation of the propaganda will be as- 
sured by means of twenty-nine local committees, 
and other members throughout the country; and 
we are hopeful of the greatest results. 

''Free courses in German have been instituted 
in the German schools by Mexican instructors 
without special effort on the part of our associa- 
tion, though a part of the general plan of the com- 
mittee, and have been received with great ap- 
proval by the pubhc, and add to our propaganda. 
By this means the public will be given to under- 
stand Germany and to receive the true communi- 
cations of our General Staff on the happenings of 
the war. The public will be disposed to accept our 
announcements. 

"It is desired to begin the immediate construc- 
tion of a German hospital, which will be a great 
impulse to our colony and will demonstrate to our 
following the power of German science, German 
ability, and the German spirit of organisation. If 
the Empire approves and gives aid it will be a 
great point for our propaganda. A committee of 
physicians has this matter under study from the 
scientific point of view. 

' ' The colony of Germans of the Empire here is 
relatively small and the economical setbacks of 
the country for the past five years have^ greatly 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 109 

hindered our spirit of enterprise against the eco- 
nomic strength of our enemies. 

''Address correspondence for the president to 
Herr Ad. Christliebsen, Apartado 58, Mexico, or 
to the secretary, Hugo von den Steinen, Apartado 
1221, Mexico City." 

When this communication was discovered en 
route to Berlin another avenue of German intrigue 
was opened up ; and, in view of the disclosures in 
the letter from former Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs Alfred Zimmermann to the German Minister 
in Mexico City, it is easy to see what use the Im- 
perial Government could have made of the twenty- 
nine branches of the Verband Deutscher Eeich- 
sangehoriger in case Germany's efforts had suc- 
ceeded in influencing Mexico to invade the United 
States. Also, in view of the Zimmermann letter, 
one can understand the statement of this society 
in April, 1916, that ''it is not practicable for us 
to aid Germany by force of arms." The society, 
at that time, was just being organised, and was, 
therefore, not powerful enough to carry on mili- 
tary operations. Evidently Doctor Zimmermann 
thought the German citizens in Mexico could vio- 
late Mexican neutrality as easily as the German 
Army scrapped the treaty with Belgium. 

One can draw a remarkable contrast between 
this method of organising foreigners in Mexico 
with that of the American business men who, dur- 
ing my stay in the capital, planned an American 
Chamber of Commerce. The complete prospectus, 



110 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

published and signed by the leading American 
business men and bankers, I have given in the 
appendix of this book. The prospectus declared : 

"It is proposed to establish a purely commer- 
cial and non-political organisation, which will fo- 
ment the friendly trade relations between Mexico 
and the United States." 

Among the benefits to be derived from such an 
organisation were cited these : 

"Increase of the market in Mexico for Ameri- 
can goods of all kinds. 

"Increase of export of Mexican products to the 
United States and encouragement of production 
in Mexico by enlisting capital and creating new 
markets or improving present ones through better 
methods. 

' ' The estabhshment of a much-needed bureau of 
business information about Mexico, its resources, 
opportunities and impediments, for the benefit of 
Americans in the United States who wish such in- 
formation but at present cannot get it from re- 
liable sources." 

Instead of being a secret report, as in the case 
of the German BericM to Berlin, the American 
report was published and widely circulated. No 
mention is made of military operations, interven- 
tion, and so on, and the object of the chamber will 
be as beneficial to Mexico as to the United States. 
That is the Great Divide between American enter- 
prise in Mexico and German intrigue. The object 
of the one is to develop honest business ; the Teu- 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 111 

tonic object is to spread propaganda and convince 
Mexicans that the German methods of conducting 
the war are right. 

It might have been stated at the beginning of 
the war, because of the cleverness of the German 
spies and the spotless organisation, that everything 
they did was in the dark — at least, so far as the 
enemy was concerned. Those were the days when 
inconspicuous Belgian billboards, advertisements 
in French and British newspapers, direct tele- 
grams and letters from Russian traitors, and offi- 
cial documents from Italy were messages and re- 
ports from intelligence officers. To-day one might 
as correctly assert that the sun never sets on Ger- 
man intrigue, for practically every great scheme 
by which Germany has sought to embroil neutrals, 
destroy ships of friendly states, stir up discon- 
tent within belligerent nations, and make peace, 
has been discovered by the United States or the 
Allies before these plans, plots and military 
dreams came true. 

One day I was sitting in the lobby of my hotel 
in Tampico, chatting with an American editor, 
when two young men entered, greeting my com- 
panion. 

''Mr. Blume and Mr. Nieno,'* he said, introduc- 
ing them. 

We sat round the table and discussed the war, 
when my companion remarked that I had been in 
Germany and had written some articles about that 



112 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

country ; then, turning to one of the guests, he said 
to me : 

''Herr Blume, here, is the head of the German 
Secret Service." Then he smiled. 

"So," remarked Blume in good English, "you 
have been writing those lies about Germany! I 
have read The Saturday Evening Post for many 
years ; but when the war broke out I stopped read- 
ing everything about Germany. None of your 
magazines will publish the truth. The other night 
I read every article in the Post, except one about 
Germany. I did not want to read that one; but 
I couldn't sleep because it was so hot that night, 
and I read that article about one-thirty in the 
morning. It made me so angry I didn't sleep all 
night ! ' ' 

"Well," I replied, "you ought to read every- 
thing that is written about Germany, and maybe 
you couldn't sleep for a week! But what are you 
going to do when Germany becomes a democratic 
nation?" 

"Germany is democratic," he answered; and 
then the conversation followed other, less belliger- 
ent, channels. 

Though it would not be safe to assume that be- 
cause Herr Blume is considered by some of the 
foreigners as the chief of the Kaiser's service 
there, the fact that the allied foreigners can select 
one or more men who do His Majesty's work is 
significant in that it shows how even the ordinary 
citizen, at home and abroad, is a member of 




El Embajador: J Mi estar all-rigthi 



$0.25 



i^OVER-CARTOON OF AMBASSADOR FLETCHER FROM 
'i SMALL MAGAZINE, "mOMO/' MEXICO CITY 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 113 

Democracy's secret service. In fact, what work 
is being done in Mexico to-day for the United 
States and the Allies is not the work of paid con- 
fidential investigators so mnch as the voluntary 
aid of American and Allied business men and 
travellers. There are Allied eyes to-day on nearly 
every German operation ; and more than one order 
to Imperial agents in Mexico has failed of execu- 
tion because of these sleepless eyes. 

It is not difficult to learn about the German 
moves in that country. The United States Gov- 
ernment knows every possible means of communi- 
cation between Mexico and the outside world. It 
knows of the possibilities through Salvador, 
Spain, Argentina and Japan. It knows the mes- 
sengers and agents who travel between Cuba, 
South and Central America, and Mexico;, and 
most of the time the United States or one of the 
Allies knows what is being sent. The system of 
watching the German agents in this Latin Re- 
public is so water-tight that most of the danger is 
past. 

One can meet many Americans who believe that 
our system in Mexico is weak because it is so easy 
for people to travel back and forth without pass- 
ports. I heard directly of several instances where 
Americans went to different parts of that coun- 
try without official permission ; and I returned to 
the United States without having to give up my 
passport, which is required now by State Depart- 
ment regulations. Some opium smuggling still 



114 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

goes on, some information still goes back and 
forth, and some Germans succeed, through Mex- 
ican and other neutral agents, in purchasing war 
materials in the United States ; but the big moves 
are almost always nipped in the bud. 

Not even the Austrian Consul in Monterey, the 
chief industrial and railroad centre in Northern 
Mexico, is able to get his carloads of sulphuric 
acid out of the United States, even though he has 
the largest wholesale and retail drug store in that 
part of the country. Whether his object is to 
divert this acid from war purposes, or whether it 
is for use in Mexico, it matters not. He was balked 
even when he organised, through Mexican work- 
ers, a wax-match factory, and ordered still more 
sulphuric acid. His business and that of his satel- 
lites may be the business of the Imperial German 
Government ; and Uncle Sam is not taking chances. 

The last spy offensive was another German 
failure, as both Mexico and the Germans are be- 
ginning to realise. Mexico and the United States 
in the mid-summer of 1917 were on friendlier 
relations than at any time during the war. 

Since I wrote the first of the series of articles 
which has led to the composition of this book there 
have been certain events of more than ordinary 
significance that change, in some respects, the 
statements I made in those articles. Between the 
time of the writing and the publication of the ar- 
ticle entitled ''Eising or Setting Sun in Mexico," 
President Wilson recognised the de jure Govern- 



THE LAST SPY OFFENSIVE 115 

ment. President Carranza addressed an auto- 
graph letter to President Wilson, notifying him 
officially of his selection as President of Mexico 
at the last election; and on August thirty-first, 
1917, Mr. Wilson, without consulting his Cabinet, 
extended our official recognition to the present 
Mexican Government. 

In Tampico the labour difficulties have in- 
creased ; and General Carranza has sent two hun- 
dred soldiers to the city to maintain order, while 
a number of Mexicans have written to the United 
States Consulate asking that American marines 
be landed to protect the city at night. In these 
letters the Mexicans declared that it was unsafe 
to go on the street after dark in some neighbour- 
hoods, and they requested American intervention. 

Food and money continue to become scarcer 
throughout Mexico, despite the official announce- 
ments. In October, 1917, the Federal Gov- 
ernment notified the governor of the state of 
Nuevo Leon that hereafter the Central Federal 
Treasury would be unable to give to the state that 
portion of the federal taxes which had previously 
been sent there. The governor was notified that 
he would have to raise money for the state govern- 
ment as best he could. 

In the warehouses of Monterey there were in 
August, 1917, over forty thousand hides ready for 
exportation; but they could not be shipped be- 
cause the Mexican Government demanded that the 
duty be paid in gold, and it was impossible for 



116 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

the exporter to get the required amount. He 
notified American officials that he had sixty thou- 
sand hides in other warehouses, available to the 
Allies whenever the required amount of gold was 
permitted to leave the United States. 

Business in the Monterey consular district has 
continued to increase, even beyond the figures 
quoted in the first article I wrote on Mexico : 
"Mexico— Enemy or Ally?" In July, 1917, the 
exportations amounted to $1,950,000; in August, 
$2,500,000; and during the first fifteen days of 
September, $1,500,000. This indicates a further 
revival in business in this part of Mexico. 

As to whether Mexico shall be an enemy or an 
ally of the United States, the question is still un- 
decided; but it seems at this time that the bonds 
between the two nations are being fused tighter 
at every rise of the sun. 

But Mexico is and may remain for some time 
as she was described to me by a foreigner in 
Tampico. 

''Mexico," he declared, ''is the screen of a great 
national moving picture. The operator and his 
machine are in the skies. Four reels of the revo- 
lution have been unwound. Nobody knows the 
fifth, except the Great Author of Human Des- 
tinies ; and the last act is just about to begin." 



CHAPTER VI 

RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 

THE sun rises unclouded in Mexico City one 
day, but by that afternoon the clouds domi- 
nate the battlefields of the skies. It rains 
for a few hours, the dusty streets are washed, auto- 
mobiles and coaches skid and race through the city, 
and the people go home or to the theatres. The 
next day they expect the morning sun to be as 
bright and warm as it was the day before. Be- 
cause, it may be, it is the rainy season now, they 
await the afternoon shower and are prepared for 
it when it comes. 

In somewhat the same philosophic way they look 
at politics. They expect to-morrow to be as peace- 
ful as to-day; but during the past seven years 
there have been so many unexpected revolutionary 
storms that when a change comes they act as they 
do when it rains in the morning, or when the sun 
shines all day. 

To-day, however, there are a few people who 
would like to know whether Mexico is facing the 
rising sun of a new, prosperous era, or whether 
the sun is about to give way to the clouds of 

117 



118 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

another troublesome period. Quien sahef say the 
Mexicans. It is true, one never can tell. 

A poor-rich nation is Mexico. Eich, because 
foreign intellect, foreign capital, foreign engineers 
and foreign business men developed her resources 
and made her so. Poor, because the revolutions 
have pestered the foreigners and Mexico in some- 
what the same way that an army of Hessian flies 
destroys a wheat field. But to-day the revolution- 
ists have discovered that the battle cry, Down with 
the foreigners who exploited us ! — though it may 
win a revolution — does not help reconstruction. 
The old sign which was illuminated throughout 
the world under President Diaz — ^Welcome, for- 
eigners! — is being put up again by timid hands; 
and it will not be long before it is lighted so 
brightly that it can be read in the darkest corners 
of the sceptical business world. This poor little 
rich nation wants to be as rich in gold as in natural 
wealth, and the government is beginning to realise 
that only the hated foreigners have the gold. 

There is so much of the melodramatic in Mex- 
ican life to-day that one is apt to overlook what is 
going on behind the scenes. One hears about the 
autocratic rule of various states ; one learns how 
governors and generals hold up foreign business 
interests, and about the inability of the central 
government to enforce its orders ; one reads in the 
newspapers about the street fights and military 
duels ; and one imagines that the whole community 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 119 

has nothing more to do. This is where one's imag- 
ination is not a safe prophet. 

To-day the United States and the Allies are 
watching Mexico through a microscope. They 
delayed official recognition of Don Venustiano Car- 
ranza as president of the Republic. They were 
waiting to see whether the sun is rising or setting. 
They recognised the de facto government and in 
August, 1917, President Wilson recognised the 
official status of the Carranza Government. 

The new constitution of Mexico, adopted at 
Queretaro in January, 1917, contains two articles 
that foreign governments consider confusing 
and equivocal. There is a possibility that Ar- 
ticle Twenty-seven may be enforced to the ex- 
tent that every foreign property in Mexico shall 
be confiscated by the government. Many millions 
of dollars invested by foreigners are in the hands 
of the government. Since January first, 1917, to 
the time of this writing, for instance, the Mexican 
Government had taken, through so-called forced 
loans, thirty-seven million pesos in gold from the 
banks of Mexico City, Monterey, Vera Cruz and 
other cities. 

In some cases the government has given re- 
ceipts. In others the French, English, Canadian 
and American bankers and depositors have no 
records. The government has been compelled to 
take this step because of the financial crisis that 
faces the nation. There is no paper money in cir- 
culation. Gold and silver coins are the only me- 



120 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

dmm ; and the expenses of the government and the 
requirements of business are so enormous that 
money must be had, no matter what measures are 
necessary. 

There are some Mexicans who declare that the 
banks will be reimbursed ; but the time when this 
will be possible depends upon how soon the gov- 
ernment obtains foreign financial aid. 

Mexico has endeavoured to obtain, through 
agents, a loan from New York bankers or from 
the United States Government. Early in August, 
1917, a report reached Mexico City that the United 
States would veto a loan if the bankers floated 
it. On August twentieth the White House an- 
nounced that, in the opinion of the United States 
Government, a loan would not be looked upon 
with disfavour. This was done to assure the Mex- 
ican Government that the United States was not 
trying to hinder Mexico in her financial aspira- 
tions ; but as the despatch appeared in the Mexican 
newspapers it gave the impression that the United 
States Government had sanctioned a loan, and 
that all Mexico had to do was to send a ship to 
New York for the money. 

The biggest financial obstacle is the army. 
Nearly seventy per cent of the annual budget 
goes to the army and navy. Since there is no 
navy, this is purely an army expense. The pay 
rolls contain nearly one hundred and fifteen thou- 
sand names; but, according to conservative esti- 
mates, there are not fifty thousand soldiers in all 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 121 

the governmeiit's forces. The army of dead men 
is so great that this form of graft is considered 
as contraband of the revolution. 

Generals are not the only ones who are becom- 
ing millionaires, measured in pesos. In Pachuca, 
the largest silver and gold mining city in the world 
to-day, one government official recently deposited, 
through an American firm, seventy-five thousand 
dollars in a New York City bank during seven 
months. Besides, he purchased considerable 
property in the capital. The government and the 
foreigners were sure that this man is dishonest; 
but his method of grafting could not be discovered. 

In Monterey a nephew of one of the highest 
officials in the government offered local merchants 
a proposition of importing articles from the 
United States free of high import duties, provided 
they would pay him from fifty to seventy per cent 
of these duties for his work, which consisted in 
getting the goods across the international border. 

Fifteen years ago there thrived in Mexico City 
what was known as the Thieves' Market. Prop- 
erty stolen by maids, pickpockets, house servants 
and others was placed on sale every Sunday 
morning ; and Mexicans and foreigners went there 
in search of missing articles and bargains. It 
was easier to obtain them in this shop than to 
start criminal investigations. 

Though the Thieves' Market is still doing busi- 
ness, it has competition now in the antique shops 
and curio stores. The revolution has turned many 



122 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

a churcli and palace inside out. Saunter through 
these places to-day and you will find church orna- 
ments, silverware, jewels, Chinese silks, Japanese 
idols, church bells and bishops' gowns for sale. 
You can purchase pieces of the silk wall paper 
with which Emperor Maximilian covered the walls 
of the National Palace when he ruled the Mexican 
people. Some day Mexico will be a rich field for 
collectors. 

This is part of the melodrama ; but the govern- 
ment has already interfered in this business. 
There is an embargo on the shipment of any 
church property out of the country. 

In London, Paris, Washington and Rome there 
are, on file with the various governments, claims 
of their citizens against the Republic of Mexico. 
Until the Mexican Government determines upon 
a definite policy in dealing with foreign interests, 
and in settling these claims, recognition of the de 
jure government will be withheld. President Car- 
ranza has been informed that some day there will 
be a reckoning ; and this is one of the chief prob- 
lems he is trying to solve. 

Interwoven with this question, like a black 
thread in a piece of white cloth, is the question 
of neutrality. To-day Mexico is not even a pas- 
sive belligerent ; and the hope of the United States 
Government, judged by its policy, is that Mexico 
will adjust her internal affairs so that it will not 
be necessary for America to divert her war 
energies from the European battlefields. One day, 




-|'llMM4t**!»i2|5';;|*! 




THESE ARE TERRA COTTA HEADS FOUND BY PROF. NIVEN. THEY 
SHOW THE TWO TYPES OF "mEXICAn" SEVERAL HUNDRED 
AND PERHAPS SEVERAL THOUSAND YEARS AGO 




AN AZTEC FAMILY TREE 

THIS IS A PIECE OF TERRA COTTA GIVING THE LIFE HISTORY 

OF AN AZTEC INDIAN FAMILY. FOUND BY PROF. NIVEN. PHOTO BY MR. NIVEN 



I 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 123 

while talking to Don Luis Cabrera in the Treasury 
Department, he remarked that, because the senti- 
ment in the Chamber of Deputies was so strongly 
in favour of neutrality, the government would not 
change its policy; but, despite the statement of 
Mr. Cabrera and the ojfficial attitude of Washing- 
ton, neutrality remains in a variable state. 

It is not the attitude of the United States or 
Mexico to-day that is important. It is the posi- 
tion the two nations will assume when Mexico has 
to decide ultimately what she is going to do. 

The sentiment among the Mexican people, so 
far as one can judge, is one with the motto ''I 
don 't care ! ' ' The opinion of the Intellectuals, the 
influential leaders back of the government, and 
of some high officials, is different. These men are 
pro- Ally because they are pro-Democracy in Mex- 
ico and Europe, 

One Sunday afternoon an American banker gave 
a party at his home in the suburbs. One of the 
chief members of President Carranza's cabinet 
was present. His reputation as a master of anec- 
dote had grown into fame since his visit to the 
United States, where he had learned to speak 
English. 

**It was house-cleaning time in Hades," began 
the secretary, looking round the room, into the 
eyes of every woman and man present, to see 
what impression his first remark had made. It 
delighted him that his audience was international. 
There were present foreign diplomats, anti-Mex- 



124 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

ican Americans, anti- American Mexicans, and my- 
self. 

"No. It is not shocking, as you say in the 
United States," he added with a smile. Th© 
guests smiled politely, too, so as not to discourage 
him. "Satan," he continued, "ordered his ser- 
vants to dust and clean all the comers and rooms 
of his palace, which stood at the entrance to his 
estate." He spoke slowly, so as not to make a 
mistake in his youthful English. 

"It was evening when Satan made his inspec- 
tion. He saw that everything was perfectly clean 
inside; and then he looked at the" — ^he paused 
for the word — "exterior. Above the gate Satan 
read the old worn inscription: 'AH hope aban- 
don, ye who enter here.' And Satan said: 'I 
must have a new sign. That one is not modern. 
It is not up to date' — as you say in New York. 

* ' Satan thought a while. ' ' The secretary paused 
and puffed his cigar. ' ' He consulted some of his 
chief advisers. ' ' 

"You mean his Cabinet," suggested an Amer- 
ican. 

"Ah, yes," replied the secretary; "Satan con- 
sulted his Cabinet. And the next day the new 
inscription above the gate read: Made in Grer- 
many ! " 

Though the secretary told this story with as 
much enthusiasm as if he had been the author of it, 
I imagine it was one he had heard in the States. 
It served the purpose at this gathering, however, 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICOi 125 

of crystallising an opinion held by many influen- 
tial Mexicans. It would not be fair to give this 
minister's name, or to conclude that, because he 
is anti- German, the government is about to change 
its policy toward the belligerents. 

Mexico is awaiting a provocation. Perhaps it 
would be better to say that it would not be wise 
for Germany to provoke her. The famous Zim- 
mermann letter, revealing the German opinion 
regarding annexation, has been forgotten; but 
Germany is again playing with neutrality by her 
growing intrigues in Mexico. The I. W. W. have 
become as active in Mexico against foreign inter- 
ests as in the United States ; and the money they 
use is called marks. 

President Carranza's authority is, in some 
states, only nominal to-day. A few governors, 
especially if they are military leaders, interpret 
and obey his orders as they see fit. For this 
reason the Chief Executive is commonly called the 
Easy Boss ; but what for some time Mr. Carranza 
has been becoming is a Calm Dictator. He has 
been accomplishing some reforms so quietly that 
even the men deposed have been unaware of hisj^ 
object. 

When Seiior Carranza first took office he had to 
appoint his popular generals to Cabinet positions. 
To date he has eliminated most of them, and with 
great skill. One man, who was thought to be dis- 
honest and who was anti-foreign in every policy, 
demanded a certain Cabinet berth — the Depart- 



126 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

ment of Fomento, or Public Works. Mr. Carranza 
could not remove him, so he wrote a decree chang- 
ing the duties of this department, taking all the 
important foreign work out of his hands. The 
foreigners were delighted ; and so was the Cabinet 
officer, because he had other things to do. He 
didn't care to deal with foreigners, anyway. i 

A year ago from the time I was in Mexico ex- 
President Diaz was regarded as having been the 
worst dictator and boss Mexico ever had — ^by the 
Mexicans. To-day he is being considered in a 
different light, though his evil acts have not been 
forgotten. Fifteen years ago, when a list of ten ; 
names was placed before Diaz so that he might f 
select a senator from Coahuila, he picked the jj 
ninth, that of Senor Carranza. To-day this sen- ' 
ator is Diaz's successor, and he had developed r 
many of the qualities of leadership the old Indian | 
had. Mr. Carranza 's friends say that he is devel- \ 
oping a Democratic dictatorship in Mexico; but 
the foreigners add: *'By his acts we shall judge 
him." 

Still, the question is asked: ''Was Diaz a 
prophet, too?" 

Because of the universal lack of education 
among Indians and Mexicans, a representative | 
government such as exists in Mexico to-day is, in ' 
fact, only a representation of the strongest parties 
and elements supporting Carranza; but Mexico 
remains more of a nation over Mr. Carranza than 
under him. He dominates the Central Govern- 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 127 

ment and he holds the nominal support of his old 
military chiefs ; though, very often, they take mat- 
ters into their own hands, such as taxation of 
foreign mines and ranches. Though the President 
has compelled some of these men to resign, the 
task is so enormous that it camiot be completed 
for some time. Manana is a famous expression 
in Mexico when one asks how soon something can 
be done; and, though manana means to-morrow 
when translated into English, it signifies a much 
longer period when apphed to work. 

The iron policy in Mexico, if one may call any 
act there by that term, belongs to the military 
chiefs. There is no lack of firmness when they 
act. 

Don Luis Cabrera, former Secretary of the 
Treasury and now government leader in the Cham- 
ber of Deputies, is considered the intellectual 
leader of the country; but one of his hobbies is 
the hunting of ducks. Still, this story is not to 
be about a duck hunt. More interesting than such 
excursions are his activities in Parliament. 

A few days before the session adjourned, in 
August, 1917, some members objected in uncen- 
sored terms to the presence of Americans in Mex- 
ico City as members of a financial commission 
upon the invitation of the government. Their 
activities were due more to Cabrera's initiative 
than to any other official's. 

Two American authorities — Professor Chand- 
ler, of Columbia University, and Professor Kem- 



128 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

merer, of Princeton — ^had just reached the capital. 
A member of the Deputies declared he thought 
their presence ought to be investigated, and that 
the government ought to be questioned about such 
an important matter. He denounced Americans in 
general and the government more particularly. 

Cabrera, who is always on hand to support the 
government, saw the members supporting the 
speaker and in a clever speech stated that he 
thought the government ought to be interrogated. 
The investigation was set for the next day. 

The next day he appeared in a different role. 
Cabrera defended the government! A member 
asked whether there were no Mexicans capable of 
doing the work the Americans were asked to do; 
whether Mexicans could not audit the govern- 
ment's accounts. Certainly, replied Cabrera in 
substance; but unfortunately most of these Mex- 
icans are out of the country. Senor Limantour, 
who is in Paris, could do it — ^Limantour was Sec- 
retary of the Treasury under Diaz. 

The opposition would not be quieted and 
Cabrera began one of his famous orations. *' Be- 
cause Thomas A. Edison, an American citizen, 
invented electric lights is no reason why Mexico 
should burn candles," declared Cabrera in part. 
These experts, he added, had been consulted by 
the United States and foreign governments; and 
Mexico, desiring to obtain the services of financial 
authorities, had invited them as any other govern- 
ment might. 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 129 

Cabrera's address and his knowledge of parlia- 
mentary rules won the day for the government, 
and the speaker escaped without a challenge to a 
duel. 

He has been challenged more than once ; but his 
opponents know that he is a crack shot at ducks. 

The visit of this American commission and 
the growing tendency among officials to be more 
friendly to the United States are the hopeful signs 
in Mexico to-day. The financial experts were 
charged with the duty of investigating the receipts 
and expenditures of the government departments, 
with the object of making recommendations to 
establish efficiency and honesty. A giant's task 
it was. 

By many this was interpreted as the initial step 
by the government in a new policy toward America 
and outside interests. Be that as it may, the Car- 
ranza Government was much more friendly to the 
United States than it had ever been. The Chief 
Executive time and again had ignored the protests 
of the German Minister because American war- 
ships were in Mexican waters at Tampico. This 
form of friendly neutrality was not agreeable to 
Herr von Eckhardt. What friendship there is to- 
day is due to Ambassador Fletcher. He was 
hissed on May first, 1917, when Carranza took the 
oath of office, and Von Eckhardt was applauded. 
If there were a celebration to-day the honours 
would be reversed. That much the ambassador 
did in four months. He may yet have the Mex- 



130 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

icans cheering Uncle Sam's troops in France. One 
never can tell what diplomacy may do next. 

One of the needs of Mexico is an efficient rail- 
road system. A curious attempt at a refutation 
of this asservation of mine I have printed in the 
appendix of this volume. Here I reaffirm that for 
seven years practically no repairs have been made 
on any of the lines — either those owned by the 
government or those owned abroad and operated 
by the authorities. In Monterey there are the 
wrecks of four hundred freight cars, burned by 
General Villa as a sacrifice to his legions when 
they made their last march through the city. 

A government official has inspected other lines 
and found four thousand cars that can be repaired ; 
but money, labourers and materials are needed. 
The first and third can come only from the United 
States. And it has been explained to the govern- 
ment by private parties that, even if Mexico had 
the money to purchase engines and car-construc- 
tion material, it would be three years before they 
could be delivered, unless — there is always a way 
to evade contracts — Mexico were an ally of the 
United States. And in that case every effort would 
be made to aid her. Allies always have the first 
call. 

Multiply the task that faced Diaz when he was 
struggling with the conflicting elements of Mexico 
in 1877 by the increase in population in Mexico, 
and by the increase in foreign capital invested, and 
you will have an understanding of what faces 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 131 

Senor Carranza. Forty years ago the United 
States would not recognise the official or de jure 
government of Diaz, because he was struggling 
with the same tasks and inactions of the present 
day, but on a smaller scale. 

Whether Senor Carranza will adopt the same 
attitude toward foreigners that Don Porfirio did, 
and whether he will try to reconstruct Mexico with 
the assistance of outside brains, are questions 
which events alone can answer. Senor Carranza 
has the same opportunities. So far as the United 
States is concerned, one might judge from the 
former policy of President Wilson that he was 
willing to help the Republic get on its financial 
and reconstruction feet, even if the alignment of 
Mexico on the side of the Allies were a temporary 
burden. The United States is endeavouring to 
help the nation by advice and counsel. 

One suggestion which has been made to Presi- 
dent Carranza is that he shall abolish the decree 
fixing an artificial value in exchange for American 
money. Formerly one dollar was equal to two 
pesos in Mexican currency. To-day, by a govern- 
ment order, a dollar is accepted by the government 
as equal to but 1.85 pesos in gold, or 1.75 pesos 
in United States bank notes. If the Mexican Gov- 
ernment would agree to the old standard — so it is 
stated — American gold and silver would be used in 
exchange and increase the amount of available 
currency. But the government has not acted. It 
is claimed that an official is benefiting by the 



132 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

present arrangement; and he is apparently strong 
enough to prevent a change. But perhaps not! 
The government may not be convinced. 

The mint in Mexico City is coining fifty thou- 
sand dollars' worth of silver fifty-centavo pieces 
every day, and much more gold. But no machine 
or collection of machines can make money as fast 
as a wasteful Eepublic can spend it. I doubt 
whether one machine can make money fast enough 
to pay the salary of a general who, by chance, may 
be a governor, an inspector, and something else 
too. One man in Mexico is not necessarily made 
for one job. 

Since the spring of 1917 there has been a change 
in the attitude of certain foreign investors toward 
the Carranza Government. There has been ap- 
parent an inclination to work with the officials. 
Canadian and American merchants have been 
again looking after Mexican business. So, too, 
the British. Some of these people have already 
discussed claims with the government, and there 
has been a belief that they will be able to agree 
with the officials. This is shocking those who be- 
lieved there was no chance of the Carranza Gov- 
ernment's continuing so long. 

While in Mexico, talking with a large number 
of foreigners, I found that those who were show- 
ing a willingness to co-operate with the authorities 
were not only being encouraged by the results but 
they believed it would be profitable. 

''Concessions" is the most hated of all words by 




PROFESSOR WILLIAM NIVEN, WHO HAS CHARGE OF 
THE EXCAVATIONS NEAR MEXICO CITY 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 133 

the revolutionists, because it was said that foreign- 
ers robbed Mexico with concessions ; but that word 
is actually being used to-day to describe what the 
present government is doing. I met an American 
who had recently obtained a water-power site near 
Mexico City. Engineers calculated that the falls 
would develop twenty-four thousand horse-power. 
This was concession; and it had been granted by 
the government that was opposed to such things 
when it began. 

Hated, cursed, vilified and condemned, Venus- 
tiano Carranza remains the strongest political 
figure in Mexico, and the only man who can guide 
the fateful and fretful destinies of the Eepublic 
to-day. All agree about this, Mexicans and for- 
eigners. Carranza or intervention ! 

There is no organised revolution to-day. Most 
Mexicans will tell you that Villa has no political 
influence, that his men are deserting from day to 
day. But Villa is a Mexican Humpty-Dumpty 
who falls to pieces one day and is put together a 
few months later. 

When I was in Tampico I was told that Villa 
had been in communication with Pelaez and that 
General Enriquez had been designated by Pelaez 
to serve with Villa on his staff in case of another 
revolution. It is significant, also, that the troops 
of Manuel Pelaez call themselves ''Villistas." 

At one time there was a plan under way for 
Pelaez and Villa representatives to meet in New 
York for a conference, but according to a public 



13* MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

announcemeiit by Villa in November, 1917, lie 
travelled through Mexico in disguise and con- 
ferred with the other rebel chiefs. 

Whatever may be Villa's political objects and 
aims one thing is apparent; that is that he could 
not make a stand against the present government 
of Mexico without assistance from interests in the 
United States opposed to Senor Carranza, or from 
German influences in Mexico. Villa is supported 
by one or the other of these, perhaps by both. 

One day in 1917 three hundred Villistas strolled 
into Torreon, and then out to an American ranch, 
where they informed the manager that Villa had 
discharged them. Perhaps there was no more 
loot ! Perhaps Carranza is an easy boss. It may 
be that this is the only kind of dictator the Mexi- 
can people will follow now. 

But despite all this, the puzzle of the Mexican 
Sphinx remains: What Will Mexico Do? How 
will the government interpret the constitution? 
Will the authorities return confiscated property? 
Will the government adjust foreign claims ? Will 
the banks be reimbursed? 

Sphinxes are not found in many parts of the 
world, but there are two in Mexico. Standing at 
the corner of Calle San Francisco and Avenida 
Juarez, looking toward Ghapultepec Park one can 
see, on the right, the National Theatre, the so- 
called White Elephant, with its incomplete marble 
walls glistening in the sunlight like a giant 's helio- 
graph. In the distance towers the rusty steel 



RISING OR SETTING SUN IN MEXICO 135 

skeleton of the proposed Honse of Parliament. 
The Mexicans call it the Black Elephant. 

These are the Mexican Sphinxes — the symbols 
of Mexico to-day. Whether these structures are 
completed and transformed into modern architec- 
tural monuments depends upon the answers to the 
questions facing the government. Whether they 
rattle to pieces or wear away unused depends upon 
the replies Senor Carranza makes to the questions 
the world is asking. These two buildings, or parts 
thereof — ^just as Mexico itself — contain possibili- 
ties for success or failure. But the question their 
bleak walls and iron bones ask is answered with 
the echo: 

''What will Mexico dor ' 

Aristotle once remarked that, to be complete, 
things must have a beginning, a middle and an 
end. How simple ; and yet how informing ! This 
chapter, so far, has only a beginning and a middle ; 
therefore, it is not complete. 

I began by asking whether the sun was rising 
or setting in Mexico. I shall answer : The sun is 
rising; but I cannot tell whether there will be 
rain to-morrow. 



CHAPTER VII 



THE FUTURE 



MUST the United States intervene in Mex- 
ico before that country can take its place 
among the great nations of the world?" 

Mexicans and foreigners ask this question be- 
cause to most men it seems a pity that a nation 
with such great possibilities should be under a 
shadow of internal strife from decade to decade. 

The answer, to my mind, is: "Yes, but there 
is more than one way to intervene in Mexico. ' ' 

I do not believe that the United States would 
be justified to-day in intervening in Mexico with 
armed forces to protect American property or 
American life because I have confidence in the 
possibilities of a Mexican Government if the lead- 
ers and the people are given an opportunity to 
work out their own political destiny. But if Ger- 
man intrigue, directed from Berlin, continues to 
stir up hatred for the United States and continues 
as a source of irritation and trouble, and if the 
United States or her Allies during the war are 
attacked from Mexico, the situation might change 
over night. 

It is obvious, I think, to most people who have 
136 



THE FUTURE 137 

travelled in Mexico recently that the people and 
the government of that country cannot grow in 
intelligence and economic strength without the 
co-operation of foreigners. Mexico needs foreign 
help the same as every young nation, and every 
nation which has gone through a period of unrest, 
needs foreign assistance. The Mexican problem 
is to make the Mexican authorities understand 
that foreigners want to help Mexico. 

The first need of the Mexican people to-day is 
education. Of the population which is estimated 
at fifteen million only about two million, accord- 
ing to recent estimates, can read and write. Igno- 
rance is at the bottom of banditry. Ignorance is 
what enables unscrupulous men to rob the people 
of land and wages. Ignorance is what keeps the 
peons dressed in rags. 

Mexico needs a public school system from one 
end of the country to the other, and in establish- 
ing such a system it should be understood by Mex- 
ico that substantial progress can be expected only 
by calling foreign educators to Mexico to superin- 
tend the work. Mexico needs great educational 
directors, such as the state superintendents of 
public instruction in some of our states. Mexico 
needs men like the Presidents of our great univer- 
sities to help her build up an educational system. 

Mexico needs an educational system that will 
begin not only with the children but with the men 
and women of to-day. They, too, must be taught 
to read and write and think. Mexico needs tech- 



138 MEXICO'S DILEMMA 

nical public school education for men. Think of 
the hundreds of thousands of children in Mexico 
who know nothing about schools ! 

To develop her great resources Mexico needs 
foreign brains and foreign capital. The United 
States needed it in the early days of her existence. 
Every country needs foreign help to "get on its 
feet," and Mexico is very far indeed from being 
an exception, especially after the many years of 
revolutions. 

Mexico needs foreigners to advise her regarding 
finance, political economy and labour. Under 
President Carranza Mexico began by asking two 
university professors to come to Mexico City and 
study the financial problems of the Eepublic. This, 
indeed, is a step in advance. 

Mexico's future depends upon her willingness 
to have foreigners assist her. This is what I 
would call political and social intervention. If 
Mexico is to be helped this sort of intervention 
must take place. 

I look upon Mexico as having more possibilities 
than any of twelve countries I have visited during 
the jpast two years — possibilities for success or 
failure. And while the nations of the world, par- 
ticularly the United States and her Allies, might 
be glad to advise Mexico, the choice rests entirely 
with that country. Mexico can be a friend or a 
foe of the United States and she has more to gain 
through friendship than through enmity. 

Within fifty years from to-day Mexico can take 



THE FUTURE 139 

her place among the greatest nations of the world 
if Mexico is willing to seek the co-operation of the 
great Republics and Democracies of the world. 
Mexico, as a Republic, owes a duty to her sister 
nations as well as to herself. Opportunity knocks 
at the doors of the Republic. The battle for Civili- 
sation, for Humanity, for International Right and 
for Democracy is being fought throughout the 
world. Mexico is being tempted by the agents of 
Berlin. Not only President Carranza but the 
other leaders of Mexico must choose between a 
German conquest and American and Allied 
co-operation. 



APPENDIX 



APPENDIX A 

BILLS PBESENTED TO THE CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES TO 
RELIEVE THE FINANCIAL CRISIS 



Translation — Bill presented to Congress of 
Mexico providing for an interior or foreign loan 
to cover the current deficit of tlie Government. 
From El Democrata, Mexico City, July 8, 1917. 

Mexico Needs to Obtain a Loan of 150,000,000 

Pesos to Cover the Deficits in the 

National Budgets. 



THE EXECUTIVE, WITH THE SAME TENDENCIES WHICH 

ACTUATED THE REVOLUTION, WILL AVOID ANY 

FOREIGN LOAN AND ATTEMPT TO MAKE 

THE FINANCIAL DEAL IN THE 

COUNTRY. 



IF IMPOSSIBLE HE BELIEVES IN ADVANCE THAT HIS 

CONDUCT WILL BE JUSTIFIED SINCE HE IS 

TRYING TO DEFINITELY REORGANISE 

FINANCES. 



In the Department of Finance and Public Credit 
we were given yesterday by the Sub-Secretary in 

143 



144 APPENDIX A 

Charge of this Department, Don Eafael Nieto, a 
copy of the following important bill in which the 
Executive is authorised to negotiate a loan up to 
150,000,000 pesos to be exclusively destined to 
cover the deficit appearing in the national budgets 
until they are adjusted. The text of the important 
bill to which we refer, and which will soon go be- 
fore Congress, states as follows : 

''The Congress of the Union has been already 
informed by the Executive that the budgets of the 
federation at present show a monthly deficit of 
about 5,000,000 pesos. 

"To make up this figure we took into account 
only the normal expenses of administration, omit- 
ting the great number of small obligations of the 
Government which were not considered urgent, 
but which in any case organise a great floating 
debt which is increasing day by day. 

"If, furthermore, we take into consideration the 
high cost of living, higher every day, and the ne- 
cessity which we will later meet as a consequence 
of it of raising the wages of public employes; 
if we take into account the possibility that the 
work of pacification already is necessitating con- 
stant expenses, the supposition that the real deficit 
will exceed the amount above is not exaggerated. 

' ' In order to arrest the gravity of the foregoing 
considerations it is sufficient to state others in 
respect to the future which makes a favourable 



APPENDIX A 145 

solution of the financial problems appear less re- 
mote. 

' ' On the one hand for some time the Government 
has not believed the time has come to pay divers 
claims which may be presented on account of dam- 
ages caused by the revolution, although it is now 
studying the particular way to recognise and 
liquidate them, and in due time will have to sub- 
mit a bill covering this matter to Congress. 

''In the same order of ideas the Executive does 
not believe that the payment of the public exterior 
debt should be renewed until the deficit referred 
to herein has been met. These two important re- 
sponsibilities then may by the very force of cir- 
cumstances be put off until later, and should there- 
fore be excluded from consideration for the 
present. 

"On the other hand the present incomes, in 
spite of the fact that conditions of the country 
have not yet resumed normality, are in compari- 
son greater than those which were being received 
in the period before the revolution and in view of 
this fact, which has some significance as showing 
the vitality of our people, it is logical to hope 
that when peace is re-established in the whole of 
the Repubhc and railway service and communica- 
tion in general are completely normalised, the 
discrepancy between income and expenses will 
gradually diminish until the day in which the dis- 
crepancy, which is now one of the most serious 
difficulties of the Government, shall disappear. 



146 APPENDIX A 

''As the indispensable bases for these objects 
can be realised in the effective liquidation of the 
present deficit, since its existence would indefi- 
nitely retire the equilibrium desired, the Execu- 
tive believes the time has come when it is neces- 
sary to obtain a loan exclusively destined to fill 
such objects, and hopes that the National Con- 
gress, sharing with him the conviction that such 
a means is the only effective way to meet this im- 
portant emergency, will at once grant him the 
authorisation necessary to begin due explorations 
in financial centres in the Kepublic and in other 
countries, impossible to know in advance even the 
possibility of obtaining a loan of such a nature. 

"On account of these same difficulties the 
Executive could not propose to the Congress pre- 
cise bases in respect to the exact amount of the 
operation and the conditions of issue, maturity, 
interest rate, etc., for the fiixing of these details 
principally depends on the conditions of the 
world's financial markets which, as one of the 
many effects of the war, have lost all stability and 
it may be said change from day to day. 

''Therefore, the Executive deems prudent to 
ask at once the Congress of the Union to grant 
him necessary powers to take all preliminary steps 
which will permit him to fix in the proper time 
these terms and possible conditions of the loan, 
the nature of the guarantees that will try to be 
established so far as possible on the basis that 
it shall not impose a charge upon public taxes, 



APPENDIX A 147 

the class of contracts which should be entered into 
with the holders of former obligations and all 
other aspects of the operations, reserving the 
right to submit them definitely to the Congress so 
that the Houses may determine the propriety of 
carrying the project into execution. 

"The Executive, following the same tendencies 
which prompted the Eevolution to avoid any ex- 
terior debt, will make all sorts of efforts to carry 
out the financial transaction within the territory 
of the Eepublic and will not apply to foreign 
countries until he is convinced of the impossibility 
of obtaining an interior loan. 

"If this impossibility shall oblige him to dis- 
obey the tendencies indicated, he believes in ad- 
vance that his conduct will be justified in consid- 
eration that the object he seeks is to definitely 
reorganise by peaceful means the finances and 
national public payments. 

"In view of the foregoing, the Executive hopes 
that the national representation will see fit to give 
its approval to the bill hereto annexed. Mexico 
City, July 7, 1917. V. Carranza (Rubrica)." 

BILL PKOPOSED 

"The Congress of the United States of Mexico 
in use of the power conceded by Section VIII, of 
Article 73, of the federal constitution, has seen 
fit to decree the following: 

"Art. 1st. — The Executive is authorised to nego- 



148 APPENDIX A 

tiate a loan up to 150,000,000 pesos to be exclu- 
sively destined to cover the deficits met in the 
national budgets until they are adjusted. 

"Art. 2nd. — The Executive is empowered to 
contract the loan referred to in the foregoing 
article either in the Eepublic or in foreign coun- 
tries in the form of an operation over a long 
period, or by obligations of the Treasury re- 
deemable or convertible in a brief term according 
to the greater or lesser difficulty encountered in 
obtaining the funds. 

''He is also empowered to stipulate the condi- 
tions of interest, the type of interest, the form 
of amortization, the guarantee, and all other ar- 
rangements relating to the operation, including 
the contracts to be entered into with the holders 
of legitimate former obligations. 

"Art. 3rd. — All contracts entered into should 
be submitted to the Congress of the Union so that 
Congress may approve them as a condition prece- 
dent to giving them value." 



APPENDIX A 149 

II 

Translation — Bill authorising the executive of 
Mexico to negotiate a loan for the rehabilitation 
of the National Eailways. — From El Universal, 
Mexico City, July 10, 1917. 

Loan of Fifty Million Pesos for the National 

Lines. 

will be destined to the repair of track, replace- 
ment of equipment and the reorganisa- 
tion of service. 

The Executive has sent to the Chamber of Depu- 
ties a bill in which the National Eepresentation is 
informed that it is indispensable for the Govern- 
ment to contract a loan of 50,000,000 pesos to cope 
with the imperious necessities of the railway prob- 
lem in the Kepublic. 

The text of the bill is as follows : 



STATEMENT OP THE QUESTION 

By reason of the needs of the campaign, the 
Constitutionalist Government found itself obliged 
to take possession, first of certain lines of rail- 
way crossing the country, and later of entire sys- 
tems, very particularly of the system of the Na- 
tional Railways of Mexico. To administer this 



150 APPENDIX A 

great organisation, the Constitutionalist Govern- 
ment created an autonomous Department, called 
Direction of Constitutionalist Railways. The 
execution of such acts was not arbitrary, but based 
on express provisions of the Railway Law. 

This state of affairs and the destruction caused 
by the war created a situation, special to the 
Mexican Railway and special to the National Rail- 
way of Mexico Company, in which the Nation has 
a preponderance of shares. This company re- 
mains in existence to conserve its legal personal- 
ity, and to administer certain properties outside 
of the traffic service ; but the service of traffic was 
suspended and the system of exploitation was 
altered. This being so, on constitutional reorgani- 
sation of the country, the National Government 
must solve the grave problem of the rehabilitation 
of the railway companies, that they may carry 
on the service of traffic in the constant and sys- 
tematic manner satisfactory to the needs of the 
Nation, which cannot live without a proper service 
of railway transport. 

The condition of the National Railways of Mex- 
ico Company particularly interests the Govern- 
ment, as much because this system is the most 
extensive and necessary for the national life, as 
because the country has extended its guaranty 
for the payment of its debt and is the owner of 
the majority of its shares, by reason of which it 
controls the system. 



APPENDIX A 151 



THE BAILWAY PROBLEM 



There are three problems related to the Na- 
tional Eailways. First, the reconstruction of the 
lines, including the repair of fixed material; the 
construction of the works of art destroyed and the 
replacement of equipment. The payment of the 
indemnity which according to the Railway Law 
the Government must make to the Company must 
also be considered; in other terms, the first prob- 
lem consists in the settlement between the Com- 
pany and the Government. Second, the financial 
reorganisation of the company, including the in- 
dispensable arrangements with the Trust Com- 
panies representing the bond holders, the consoli- 
dation of the floating debt and the arrangements 
relating to certain bonds to secure interests that 
have matured. Third, the administrative and 
technical reorganisation of the Company's serv- 
ices, so that the system may be again operated by 
the owner company on the new bases exacted by 
the social transformation the Nation has suffered. 

Of all these problems the most pressing is the 
replacement of the lines, which public necessity is 
imperiously demanding. At the same time the 
solution of this problem is indispensable so the 
rest may be studied and decided successfully. 

The Executive of the Nation needs, then, to be 
ready to cope with all the obligations related with 
this preliminary problem, and for this needs the 
authorisation of the Legislative Power in order to 



152 APPENDIX A 

obtain the indispensable amount of money. The 
''modus operandi" of the investment of the neces- 
sary sums, the preferred-claim nature that will 
be given to the required moneys advanced, and the 
further details and conditions of the expenditure 
of the money, are secondary questions which can- 
not be decided until the Government can dispose 
of the sums to which I have referred. 

For the foregoing- reasons, the Executive of the 
Union asks for the passage of the following DE- 
CEEE by the General Congress : 

DECEEE 

SOLE AETICLE :— The Executive of the Union 
is authorised to charge the credit of the State up 
to the sum of 50,000,000 pesos, destined to the re- 
pair of track, replacement of equipment and the 
reorganisation of the services of the National Rail- 
ways of Mexico Company, it being understood that 
the Executive shall submit to the General Con- 
gress in advance the bases of the contracts he 
may make and the investment of the loan he shall 
obtain. 

Mexico, July 9, 1917. 

V. CARRANZA (Seal) 



APPENDIX B 
THE MEXICAN CONSTITUTION OF 1917 

TRANSLATED BY 

H. N. BRANCH, LL.B. 

With a Foreword 

BT 

L, S. ROWE, Ph.D., LL.D. 

Copyright. 1917, by 

American Academt of Political and Social Science 

All rights reserved 



Here reproduced by cojj^esy of 
The American Academy op Poutiq^l and Social Science 

FHILAOELPHSi^ 



FOREWORD 

The widespread interest in Mexican affairs has 
led the Editorial Council of the Academy to ar- 
range for the early publication of the Mexican 
Constitution adopted at the recent Constitutional 
Convention held in Queretaro. In a sense this 
publication supplements the special volume issued 
by the Academy in January last on ' ' The Purposes 
and Ideals of the Mexican Revolution," 

Since the first movement for independence from 
the mother country in 1810, Mexico has passed 
through an extraordinary constitutional develop- 
ment. The idea of a Republican form of govern- 
ment made its way but slowly amongst the found- 
ers of Mexican independence. Between 1810 and 
1824 the opinion of the country wavered between 
a constitutional monarchy and a republic. It is 
true that the earliest Mexican Constitution — ^that 
adopted in Apatzingan by the first Constitutional 
Convention — provided for a Republican form of 
government with an Executive composed of three 
persons elected by the National Congress. 
Amongst the members of this triumvirate, a sys- 
tem of rotation in office was established under 
which each exercised the powers of Chief Execu- 
tive during a consecutive period of four months. 

155 



156 FOREWORD 

This Constitution was regarded as provisional. 
As soon as the struggle for independence was 
over, the leaders planned to call another conven- 
tion for the purposes of effecting the final organ- 
isation of the country. During the period between 
1815 and 1857, the country was torn by internal 
strife and almost every conceivable form of Con- 
stitutional systems was tried, ranging from a re- 
publican triumvirate to the imperial system of 
Iturbide. 

The development of Federalism in Mexico 
stands in marked contrast with the political evolu- 
tion of the United States. In Mexico, Federalism 
meant the sub-division of what had been, under 
Spanish rule, a centralised, unified system; in the 
United States, the establishment of a federal sys- 
tem signified a closer union between separated 
political units. In spite of the adoption of a fed- 
eral system by Mexico in 1857, the highly central- 
ised traditions of Spanish rule perpetuated them- 
selves and finally resulted, under the Diaz admin- 
istration, in the complete subordination of the 
individual states to the national government. 

The leaders of the revolutionary movement 
against the Diaz regime were convinced that the 
Constitution of 1857 had been used by self-seeking 
politicians for personal ends and that its pro- 
visions had contributed toward the domination of 
the country by a self-constituted oligarchy. It is 
not surprising, therefore, to find radical changes 
in the Constitution of 1917. The revolutionary 



FOREWORD 157 

leaders, headed by Venustiano Carranza, liold that 
the avowed purposes of the revolutionary move- 
ment, namely to secure for the masses of the Mex- 
ican people better economic and social conditions, 
must be incorporated into the organic law and it 
is their hope that thereby the country will be pro- 
tected against a possible reactionary movement. 
To what extent these hopes will be realised, the 
future alone can determine. 

The Academy is under obligation to Mr. H. N. 
Branch for his admirable translation of the Con- 
stitution of 1917. 

L. S. RowB. 
University of Pennsylvania 

May, 1917. 



Title I 



CHAPTER I 



Of Personal Guarantees 

Article 1. Every person in the United States of 
Mexico shall enjoy all ^arantees granted by this 
Constitution; these shall neither be abridged nor 
suspended except in such cases and under such 
conditions as are herein provided. (See Art. 29.) 

Art. 2. Slavery is forbidden in the United 
States of Mexico. Slaves who enter the national 
territory shall, by this act alone, recover their 
freedom, and enjoy the protection of the law. 

Art. 3. Instruction is free ; that given in public 
institutions of learning shall be secular. Primary 
instruction, whether higher or lower, given in pri- 
vate institutions shall likewise be secular. 

No religious corporation nor minister of any re- 
ligious creed shall establish or direct schools of 
primary instruction. 

Private primary schools may be established only 
subject to official supervision. 

Primary instruction in public institutions shall 
be gratuitous. 

159 



160 APPENDIX B 

Art. 4. No person shall be prevented from en- 
gaging in any profession, industrial or commercial 
pursuit or occupation of his liking, provided it be 
lawful. The exercise of this liberty shall only be 
forbidden by judicial order when the rights of 
third persons are infringed, or by executive order, 
issued under the conditions prescribed by law, 
when the rights of society are violated. No one 
shall be deprived of the fruit of his labor except 
by judicial decree. 

Each State shall determine by law what profes- 
sions shall require licenses, the requisites to be 
complied with in obtaining the same, and the 
authorities empowered to issue them. 

Art. 5. No one shall be compelled to render 
personal services without due compensation and 
without his full consent, excepting labor imposed 
as a penalty by judicial decree, which shall con- 
form to the provisions of clauses I and II of 
Article 123. 

Only the following public services shall be ob- 
ligatory, subject to the conditions set forth in the 
respective laws: military service, jury service, 
service in municipal and other public elective office, 
whether this election be direct or indirect, and 
service in connection with elections, which shall be 
obligatory and without compensation. 

The State shall not permit any contract, cov- 
enant or agreement to be carried out having for 
its object the abridgment, loss or irrevocable sacri- 



APPENDIX B 161 

fice of the liberty of man, whether by reason of 
labor, education or religious vows. The law, 
therefore, does not permit the establishment of 
monastic orders, of whatever denomination, or for 
whatever purpose contemplated. 

Nor shall any person legally agree to his own 
proscription or exile, or to the temporary or per- 
manent renunciation of the exercise of any pro- 
fession or industrial or commercial pursuit. 

A contract for labor shall only be binding to 
render the services agreed upon for the time fixed 
by law and shall not exceed one year to the preju- 
dice of the party rendering the service ; nor shall 
it in any case whatsoever embrace the waiver, loss 
or abridgment of any political or civil right. 

In the event of a breach of such contract on the 
part of the party pledging himself to render the 
service, the said party shall only be liable civilly 
for damages arising from such breach, and in no 
event shall coercion against his person be em- 
ployed. 

Art. 6. The expression of ideas shall not be the 
subject of any judicial or executive investigation, 
unless it offend good morals, impair the rights of 
third parties, incite to crime or cause a breach of 
the peace. 

Art. 7. Freedom of writing and publishing writ- 
ings on any subject is inviolable. No law or au- 
thority shall have the right to establish censorship, 



162 APPENDIX B 

require bond from authors or printers, nor restrict 
the liberty of the press, which shall be limited only 
by the respect due to private life, morals and pub- 
lic peace. Under no circumstances shall a printing 
press be sequestrated as the corpus delicti. 

The organic laws shall prescribe whatever pro- 
visions may be necessary to prevent the imprison- 
ment, under pretext of a denunciation of offenses 
of the press, of the vendors, newsboys, workmen 
and other employees of the establishment publish- 
ing the writing denounced, unless their responsi- 
bility be previously established. 

Art. 8. Public officials and employees shall re- 
spect the exercise of the right of petition, pro- 
vided it be in writing and in a peaceful and re- 
spectful manner; but this right may be exercised 
in political matters solely by citizens. 

To every petition there shall be given an answer 
in writing by the official to whom it may be ad- 
dressed, and the said official shall be bound to in- 
form the petitioner of the decision taken within a 
brief period. 

Art. 9. The right peaceably to assemble or to 
come together for any lawful purpose shall not be 
abridged ; but only citizens shall be permitted to 
exercise this right for the purpose of taking part 
in the political affairs of the country. No armed 
assembly shall have the right to deliberate. 

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APPENDIX B 163 

ful, nor may it be dissolved, which shall have for 
its purpose the petitioning of any authority or the 
presentation of any protest against any act, pro- 
vided no insults be proffered against the said au- 
thority, nor violence resorted to, nor threats used 
to intimidate or to compel the said authority to 
render a favorable decision. 



Art. 10. The inhabitants of the United States 
of Mexico are entitled to have arms of any kind 
in their possession for their protection and legiti- 
mate defense, excepting such as are expressly pro- 
hibited by law and such as the nation may reserve 
for the exclusive use of the army, navy and na- 
tional guard; but they shall not bear such arms 
within inhabited places, except subject to the police 
regulations thereof. 

Art. 11. Every one has the right to enter and 
leave the Eepublic, to travel through its territory 
and change his residence without necessity of a 
letter of security, passport, safe conduct or any 
other similar requirement. The exercise of this 
right shall be subordinated to the powers of the 
judiciary, in the event of civil or criminal respon- 
sibility, and to those of the executive, in so far as 
relates to the limitations imposed by law in re- 
gard to emigration, immigration, and the public 
health of the country, or in regard to undesirable 
foreigners resident in the country. 



164 APPENDIX B 

Art. 12. No titles of nobility, prerogatives or 
hereditary honors shall be granted in the United 
States of Mexico, nor shall any effect be given to 
those granted by other countries. 

Art. 13. No one shall be tried according to pri- 
vate laws or by special tribunals. No person or 
corporation shall have privileges nor enjoy emolu- 
ments which are not in compensation for public 
services and established by law. Military juris- 
diction shall be recognized for the trial of criminal 
cases having direct connection with military disci- 
pline, but the military tribunals shall in no case 
and for no reason extend their jurisdiction over 
persons not belonging to the army. Whenever a 
civilian shall be implicated in any military crime 
or offense, the cause shall be heard by the corre- 
sponding civil authorities. 

Art. 14. No law shall be given retroactive effect 
to the prejudice of any person whatsoever. 

No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, 
property, possessions or rights without due proc- 
ess of law instituted before a duly created court, 
in which the essential elements of procedure are 
observed and in accordance with previously exist- 
ing laws. 

In criminal cases no penalty shall be imposed 
by mere analogy or even by a priori evidence, but 
the penalty shall be decreed by a law in every 
respect applicable to the crime in question. 



APPENDIX B 165 

In civil suits the final judgment shall be accord- 
ing to the letter or the juridical interpretation of 
the law; in the absence of the latter, the general 
legal principles shall govern. 

Art. 15. No treaty shall be authorized for the 
extradition of political offenders, or of offenders 
of the common class, who have been slaves in the 
country where the offense was committed. Nor 
shall any agreement or treaty be entered into 
which abridges or modifies the guarantees and 
rights which this constitution grants to the indi- 
vidual and to the citizen. 

Art. 16. No one shall be molested in his person, 
family, domicile, papers or possessions, except by 
virtue of an order in writing of the competent 
authority setting forth the legal ground and justi- 
fication for the action taken. No order of arrest 
or detention shall be issued against any person 
other than by competent judicial authority, nor 
unless preceded by a charge, accusation or com- 
plaint for a specific offense punishable by im- 
prisonment, supported by an affidavit of a credible 
party or by such other evidence as shall make the 
guilt of the accused probable ; in cases in flagrante 
delicto any person may arrest the offender and his 
accomplices, placing them without delay at the 
disposition of the nearest authorities. Only in 
urgent cases instituted by the public attorney 
without previous complaint or indictment (see 
note to Art. 21) and when there is no judicial 



166 APPENDIX B 

authority available may the administrative au- 
thorities, on their strictest accountability, order 
the detention of the accused, placing him at the 
disposition of the judicial authorities. Every 
search warrant, which may only be issued by the 
judicial authority and which must be in writing, 
shall specify the place to be searched, the person 
or persons to be arrested and the objects sought, 
to which the proceeding shall be strictly limited; 
at the conclusion of which, a detailed written state- 
ment shall be drawn up in the presence of two 
witnesses proposed by the occupant of the place to 
be searched, or, in his absence or refusal, by the 
official making the search. 

Administrative officials may enter private 
houses solely for the purpose of determining that 
the sanitary and police regulations have been com- 
plied with ; they may likewise demand the exhibi- 
tion of books and documents necessary to prove 
that the fiscal regulations have been obeyed, sub- 
ject to the respective laws and to the formalities 
prescribed for cases of search. 

Art. 17. No one shall be imprisoned for debts 
of a purely civil character. No one shall take 
the law into his own hands, nor resort to violence 
in the enforcement of his rights. The courts shall 
be open for the administration of justice at such 
times and under such conditions as the law may 
establish ; their services shall be gratuitous and all 
judicial costs are accordingly prohibited. ^ 



APPENDIX B 167 

Art. 18. Detention shall be exercised only for 
offenses meriting corporal punishment. The place 
of detention shall be different and completely sep- 
arated from that set apart for the serving of sen- 
tences. 

The Federal and State Grovernments shall or- 
ganize in their respective territories the penal 
system — ^penal colonies or prisons — on the basis of 
labor as a means of regeneration. (See Art. 5 
and Clauses I and II of Art. 123.) 

Art. 19. No detention shall exceed three days 
except for reasons specified in the formal order of 
commitment, which shall set forth the offense 
charged, the substance thereof, the time, place and 
circumstances of its commission, and the facts 
disclosed in the preliminary examination; these 
facts must always be sufficient to establish the 
corpus delicti and the probable guilt of the ac- 
cused. All authorities ordering any detention or 
consenting thereto, as well as all agents, subordi- 
nates, wardens or jailers executing the same, shall 
be liable for any breach of this provision. 

The trial shall take place only for the offense or 
offenses set forth in the formal order of commit- 
ment. If it shall develop in the course of trial 
that another offense different from that charged 
has been committed, a separate accusation must be 
brought. This, however, shall not prevent the 
joinder of both causes of action, if deemed ad- 
visable. 



168 APPENDIX B 

Any maltreatment during apprehension or con- 
finement; any molestation inflicted without legal 
justification; any exaction or contribution levied 
in prison are abuses which the law shall correct 
and the authorities repress. 

Art. 20. In every criminal trial the accused 
shall enjoy the following guarantees : 

I. He shall be set at liberty on demand and 
upon giving a bond up to ten thousand pesos, ac- 
cording to his status and the gravity of the offense 
charged, provided, however, that the said offense 
shall not be punishable with more than five years ' 
imprisonment; he shall be set at liberty without 
any further requisite than the placing of the stip- 
ulated sum at the disposal of the proper authori- 
ties or the giving of an adequate mortgage bond 
or personal security. 

II. He may not be forced to be a witness 
against himself; wherefore denial of access or 
other means looking towards this end is hereby 
strictly prohibited. 

III. He shall be publicly notified within forty- 
eight hours after being turned over to the judicial 
authorities of the name of his accuser and of the 
nature of and cause for the accusation, so that he 
may be familiar with the offense with which he is 
charged, may reply thereto and make his prelim- 
inary statement. 

IV. He shall be confronted with the witnesses 
against him, who shall testify in his presence if 



APPENDIX B 169 

they are to be found in the place where the trial 
is being held, so that he may cross-examine them 
in his defense. 

V. All witnesses which he shall offer shall be 
heard in his defense, as well as all evidence re- 
ceived, for which he shall be given such time as 
the law may prescribe; he shall furthermore be 
assisted in securing the presence of any person or 
persons whose testimony he may request, provided 
they are to be found at the place of trial. 

VI. He shall be entitled to a public trial by a 
judge or jury of citizens who can read and write 
and are also citizens of the place and district 
where the offense shall have been committed, pron 
vided the penalty for such offense be greater than 
one year's imprisonment. The accused shall al- 
ways be entitled to trial by jury for all offenses 
committed by means of the press against the pub- 
lic peace or against the safety, domestic or for- 
eign, of the Republic. 

VII. He shall be furnished with all information 
of record needed for his defense. 

VIII. He shall be tried within four months, if 
charged with an offense the maximum penalty for 
which does not exceed two years' imprisonment, 
and within one year, if the maximum penalty be 
greater. 

IX. He shall be heard in his own defense, either 
personally or by counsel, or by both, as he may 
desire. In case he shall have no one to defend 
him, a list of official counsel shall be submitted to 



170 APPENDIX B 

him in order that he may choose one or more to 
act in his defense. If the accused shall not desire 
to name any counsel for his defense, after having 
been called upon to do so at the time of his pre- 
liminary examination, the court shall appoint 
counsel to defend him. The accused may name his 
counsel immediately on arrest and shall be en- 
titled to have him present at every stage of the 
trial; but he shall be bound to make him appear 
as often as required by the court. 

X. In no event may imprisonment or detention 
be extended through failure to pay counsel fees 
or through any other pecuniary charge, by virtue 
of any civil liability or other similar cause. Nor 
shall detention be extended beyond the time set by 
law as the maximum for the offense charged. 

The period of detention shaU be reckoned as a 
part of the final sentence. 

Art. 21. The imposition of all penalties is an 
exclusive attribute of the judiciary. The prosecu- 
tion of offenses belongs to the public prosecutor 
and to the judicial police, who shall be under the 
immediate command and authority of the public 
prosecutor. The punishment of violations of 
municipal and police regulations belongs to the 
administrative authorities, and shall consist only 
of a fine or of imprisonment not exceeding thirty- 
six hours. Should the offender fail to pay the fine 
this shall be substituted by the corresponding pe- 



APPENDIX B 171 

riod of arrest, whicli shall in no case exceed fifteen 
days. 

Should the offender be a workman or unskilled 
laborer, he shall not be punished with a fine 
greater than the amount of his weekly wage or 
salary. 

Art. 22. Punishments by mutilation and in- 
famy, by branding, flogging, beating with sticks, 
torture of any kind, excessive fines, confiscation of 
property and any other penalties, unusual or 
working corruption of the blood, are prohibited. 

Attachment proceedings of the whole or part of 
the property of any person made under judicial 
authority to cover any civil liability arising out of 
the commission of any offense, or by reason of the 
imposition of any tax or fine, shall not be deemed 
a confiscation of property. 

Art. 23. Capital punishment is likewise for- 
bidden for all political offenses ; in the case of of- 
fenses other than political it shall only be imposed 
for high treason committed during a foreign war, 
parricide, murder with malice aforethought, ar- 
son, abduction, highway robbery, piracy, and 
grave military offenses. 

Art. 24. Every one is free to embrace the re- 
ligion of his choice and to practice all ceremonies, 
devotions or observances of his respective creed, 
either in places of public worship or at home, pro- 



172 APPENDIX B 

vided they do not constitute an offense punishable 
by law. 

Every religious act of public worship shall be 
performed strictly within the places of public wor- 
ship, which shall be at all times under govern- 
mental supervision. ( Drawn largely from ' ' Leyes 
de Reforma" of December 14, 1874. See note to 
Art. 130.) 

Art. 25 Sealed correspondence sent through the 
mails shall be free from search, and its violation 
shall be punishable by law. 

Art. 26. No member of the army shall in time 
of peace be quartered in private dwellings, with- 
out the consent of the owner ; nor shall he demand 
any other exaction. In time of war the military 
may demand lodging, equipment, provisions and 
other assistance, in the manner provided by the 
corresponding martial law. 

Art. 27. The ownership of lands and waters 
comprised within the limits of the national terri- 
tory is vested originally in the Nation, which has 
had, and has, the right to transmit title thereof to 
private persons, thereby constituting private 
property. 

Private property shall not be expropriated ex^ 
cept for reasons of public utility and by means of 
indemnification. 

The Nation shall have at all times the right to 



APPENDIX B 173 

impose on private property such limitations as the 
public interest may demand as well as the right to 
regulate the development of natural resources, 
which are susceptible of appropriation, in order 
to conserve them and equitably to distribute the 
public wealth. For this purpose necessary meas- 
ures shall be taken to divide large landed estates ; 
to develop small landed holdings ; to establish new 
centers of rural population with such lands and 
waters as may be indispensable to them; to en- 
courage agriculture and to prevent the destruction 
of natural resources, and to protect property from 
damage detrimental to society. Settlements, ham- 
lets situated on private property and communes 
which lack lands or water or do not possess them 
in sufficient quantities for their needs shall have 
the right to be provided with them from the ad- 
joining properties, always having due regard for 
small landed holdings. Wherefore, all grants of 
lands made up to the present time under the de- 
cree of January 6, 1915, are confirmed. Private 
property acquired for the said purposes shall be 
considered as taken for public utility. 

In the Nation is vested direct ownership of all 
minerals or substances which in veins, layers, 
masses, or beds constitute deposits whose nature 
is different from the components of the land, such 
as minerals from which metals and metaloids used 
for industrial purposes are extracted ; beds of pre- 
cious stones, rock salt and salt lakes formed di- 
rectly by marine waters, products derived from 



174 APPENDIX B 

the decomposition of rocks, when their exploitation 
requires underground work; phosphates which 
may be used for fertilizers; solid mineral fuels; 
petroleum and all hydrocarbons — solid, liquid or 
gaseous. 

In the Nation is likewise vested the ownership 
of the waters of territorial seas to the extent and 
in the terms fixed by the law of nations ; those of 
lakes and inlets of bays; those of interior lakes 
of natural formation which are directly connected 
with flowing waters; those of principal rivers or 
tributaries from the points at which there is a 
permanent current of water in their beds to their 
mouths, whether they flow to the sea or cross two 
or more States; those of intermittent streams 
which traverse two or more States in their main 
body; the waters of rivers, streams, or ravines, 
when they bound the national territory or that of 
the States ; waters extracted from mines ; and the 
beds and banks of the lakes and streams herein- 
before mentioned, to the extent fixed by law. Any 
other stream of water not comprised within the 
foregoing enumeration shall be considered as an. 
integral part of the private property through 
which it flows ; but the development of the waters 
when they pass from one landed property to an- 
other shall be considered of public utility and shall 
be subject to the provisions prescribed by the 
States. 

In the cases to which the two foregoing para- 
graphs refer, the ownership of the Natipn is in- 



APPENDIX B 175 

alienable and may not be lost by prescription; 
concessions shall be granted by tbe Federal Gov- 
ernment to private parties or civil or commercial 
corporations organized under the laws of Mexico, 
only on condition that said resources be regularly 
developed, and on the further condition that the 
legal provisions be observed. 

Legal capacity to acquire ownership of lands 
and waters of the nation shall be governed by the 
following provisions : 

I. Only Mexicans by birth or naturalization and 
Mexican companies have the right to acquire own- 
ership in lands, waters and their appurtenances, 
or to obtain concessions to develop mines, waters 
or mineral fuels in the Eepublic of Mexico. The 
Nation may grant the same right to foreigners, 
provided they agree before the Department of 
Foreign Affairs to be considered Mexicans in re- 
spect to such property, and accordingly not to in- 
voke the protection of their Governments in re- 
spect to the same, under penalty, in case of breach, 
of forfeiture to the Nation of property so ac- 
quired. Within a zone of 100 kilometers from the 
frontiers, and of 50 kilometers from the sea coast, 
no foreigner shall under any conditions acquire 
direct ownership ot lands and waters. 

II. The religious institutions known as churches, 
irrespective of creed, shall in no case have legal 
capacity to acquire, hold or administer real prop- 
erty or loans made on such real property; all 
such real property or loans as may be at present 



176 APPENDIX B 

held by the said religious institutions, either on 
their own behalf or through third parties, shall 
vest in the Nation, and any one shall have the 
right to denounce property so held. Presumptive 
proof shall be sufficient to declare the denuncia- 
tion well-founded. Places of public worship are 
the property of the Nation, as represented by the 
Federal Government, which shall determine which 
of them may continue to be devoted to their pres- 
ent purposes. Episcopal residences, rectories, 
seminaries, orphan asylums or collegiate estab- 
lishments of religious institutions, convents or any 
other buildings built or designed for the adminis- 
tration, propaganda, or teaching of the tenets of 
any religious creed shall forthwith vest, as of full 
right, directly in the Nation, to be used exclusively 
for the public services of the Federation or of the 
States, within their respective jurisdictions. All 
places of public worship which shall later be 
erected shall be the property of the Nation. 

III. Public and private charitable institutions 
for the sick and needy, for scientific research, or 
for the diffusion of knowledge, mutual aid so- 
cieties or organizations formed for any other law- 
ful purpose shall in no case acquire, hold or ad- 
minister loans made on real property, unless the 
mortgage terms do not exceed ten years. In no 
case shall institutions of this character be under 
the patronage, direction, administration, charge 
or supervision of religious corporations or institu- 
tions, nor of ministers of any religious creed or of 



APPENDIX B ITT 

their dependents, even though either the former or 
the latter shall not be in active service. 

IV. Commercial stock companies shall not ac- 
quire, hold, or administer rural properties. Com- 
panies of this nature which may be organized to 
develop any manufacturing, mining, petroleum or 
other industry, excepting only agricultural indus- 
tries, may acquire, hold or administer lands only 
in an area absolutely necessary for their establish- 
ments or adequate to serve the purposes indicated, 
which the Executive of the Union or of the re- 
spective State in each case shall determine. 

V. Banks duly organized under the laws gov- 
erning institutions of credit may make mortgage 
loans on rural and urban property in accordance 
with the provisions of the said laws, but they may 
not own nor administer more real property than 
that absolutely necessary for their direct pur- 
poses ; and they may furthermore hold temporarily 
for the brief term fixed by law such real property 
as may be judicially adjudicated to them in execu- 
tion proceedings. 

VI. Properties held in common by co-owners, 
hamlets situated on private property, pueblos, 
tribal congregations and other settlements which, 
as a matter of fact or law, conserve their com- 
munal character, shall have legal capacity to en- 
joy in common the waters, woods and lands be- 
longing to them, or which may have been or shall 
be restored to them according to the law of Jan- 
uary 6, 1915, until such time as the manner of 



178 APPENDIX B 

making the division of the lands shall be deter- 
mined by law. 

VII. Excepting the corporations to which 
Clauses III, IV, V and VI hereof refer, no other 
civil corporation may hold or administer on its 
own behalf real estate or mortgage loans derived 
therefrom, with the single exception of buildings 
designed directly and immediately for the pur- 
poses of the institution. The States, the Federal 
District and the Territories, as well as the munici- 
palities throughout the Republic, shall enjoy full 
legal capacity to acquire and hold all real estate 
necessary for public services. 

The Federal and State laws shall determine 
within their respective jurisdictions those cases in 
which the occupation of private property shall be 
considered of public utility; and in accordance 
with the said laws the administrative authorities 
shall make the corresponding declaration. The 
amount fixed as compensation for the expropriated 
property shall be based on the sum at which the 
said property shall be valued for fiscal purposes 
in the catastral or revenue offices, whether this 
value be that manifested by the owner or merely 
impliedly accepted by reason of the payment o^ 
his taxes on such a basis, to which there shall be 
added 10 per cent. The increased value which the 
property in question may have acquired through 
improvements made subsequent to the date of the 
fixing of the fiscal value shall be the only matter 
subject to expert opinion and to judicial determi- 



APPENDIX B 179 

nation. The same procedure shall be observed in 
respect to objects whose value is not recorded in 
the revenue offices. 

All proceedings, findings, decisions and all op- 
erations of demarcation, concession, composition, 
judgment, compromise, alienation, or auction 
which may have deprived properties held in com- 
mon by co-owners, hamlets situated on private 
property, settlements, congregations, tribes and 
other settlement organizations still existing since 
the law of June 25, 1856, of the whole or a part of 
their lands, woods and waters, are declared null 
and void ; all findings, resolutions and operations 
which may subsequently take place and produce 
the same effects shall likewise be null and void. 
Consequently all lands, forests and waters of 
which the above-mentioned settlements may have 
been deprived shall be restored to them according 
to the decree of January 6, 1915, which shall re- 
main in force as a constitutional law. In case the 
adjudication of lands, by way of restitution, be 
not legal in the terms of the said decree, which 
adjudication have been requested by any of the 
above entities, those lands shall nevertheless be 
given to them by way of grant, and they shall in 
no event fail to receive such as they may need. 
Only such lands, title to which may have been ac- 
quired in the divisions made by virtue of the said 
law of June 25, 1856, or such as may be held in 
undisputed ownership for more than ten years 
are excepted from the provision of nullity, pro- 



180 APPENDIX B 

vided their area does not exceed fifty hectares. 
(1 hectare = 2.47 acres.) Any excess over this 
area shall be returned to the commune and the 
owner shall be indemnified. All laws of restitu- 
tion enacted by virtue of this provision shall be 
immediately carried into effect by the administra- 
tive authorities. Only members of the commune 
shall have the right to the lands destined to be 
divided, and the rights to these lands shall be in- 
alienable so long as they remain undivided; the 
same provision shall govern the right of owner- 
ship after the division has been made. The exer- 
cise of the rights pertaining to the Nation by vir- 
tue of this article shall follow judicial process; 
but as a part of this process and by order of the 
proper tribunals, which order shall be issued 
within the maximum period of one month, the ad- 
ministrative authorities shall proceed without 
delay to the occupation, administration, auction, 
or sale of the lands and waters in question, to- 
gether with all their appurtenances, and in no case 
may the acts of the said authorities be set aside 
until final sentence is handed down. 

During the next constitutional term, the Con- 
gress and the State Legislatures shall enact laws, 
within their respective jurisdictions, for the pur- 
pose of carrying out the division of large landed 
estates, subject to the following conditions : 

(a)^ In each State and Territory there shall be 
fixed the maximum area of land which any one 



APPENDIX B 181 

individual or legally organized corporation may 
own. 

(b) The excess of the area thus fixed shall be 
subdivided by the owner within the period set by 
the laws of the respective locality ; and these sub- 
divisions shall be offered for sale on such condi- 
tions as the respective governments shall approve, 
in accordance with the said laws. 

(c) If the owner shall refuse to make the sub- 
division, this shall be carried out by the local gov- 
ernment, by means of expropriation proceedings. 

(d) The value of the subdivisions shall be paid 
in annual amounts sufficient to amortize the prin- 
cipal and interest within a period of not less than 
twenty years, during which the person acquiring 
them may not alienate them. The rate of interest 
shall not exceed 5 per cent per annum. 

(e) The owner shall be bound to receive bonds 
of a special issue to guarantee the payment of the 
property expropriated. With this end in view, the 
Congress shall issue a law authorizing the States 
to issue bonds to meet their agrarian obligations. 

(f ) The local laws shall govern the extent of 
the family patrimony, and determine what prop- 
erty shall constitute the same on the basis of its 
inalienability; it shall not be subject to attachment 
nor to any charge whatever. 

All contracts and concessions made by former 
governments from and after the year 1876 which 
shall have resulted in the monopoly of lands, 
waters and natural resources of the Nation by a 



182 APPENDIX B 

single individual or corporation, are declared sub- 
ject to revision, and the Executive is authorised to 
declare those null and void which seriously preju- 
dice the public interest. 

Art. 28. There shall be no private nor govern- 
mental monopolies of any kind whatsoever in the 
United States of Mexico ; nor exemption from tax- 
ation; nor any prohibition even under cover of 
protection to industry, excepting only those relat- 
ing to the coinage of money, to the postal, tele- 
graphic, and radio-telegraphic services, to the is- 
suance of bills by a single banking institution to 
be controlled by the Federal Government, and to 
the privileges which for a limited period the law 
may concede to authors and artists for the repro- 
duction of their work ; and lastly, to those granted 
inventors or improvers of inventions for the ex- 
clusive use of their inventions. 

The law will accordingly severely punish and 
the authorities diligently prosecute any accumulat- 
ing or cornering by one or more persons of neces- 
saries for the purpose of bringing about a rise in 
price ; any act or measure which shall stifle or en- 
deavor to stifle free competition in any produc- 
tion, industry, trade or public service ; any agree- 
ment or combination of any kind entered into by 
producers, manufacturers, merchants, common 
carriers or other public or quasi-public service, to 
stifle competition and to compel the consumer to 
pay exorbitant prices; and in general whatever 



APPENDIX B 183 

constitutes an unfair and exclusive advantage in 
favor of one or more specified person or persons 
to the detriment of the public in general or of any 
special class of society. 

Associations of labor organized to protect their 
own interests shall not be deemed a monopoly. 
Nor shall cooperative associations or unions of 
producers be deemed monopolies when, in defense 
of their own interests or of the general public, 
they sell directly in foreign markets national or 
industrial products which are the principal source 
of wealth of the region in which they are produced, 
provided they be not necessaries, and provided 
further that such associations be under the super- 
vision or protection of the Federal Government or 
of that of the States, and provided further that 
authorization be in each case obtained from the 
respective legislative bodies. These legislative 
bodies may, either on their own initiative or on 
the recommendation of the Executive, revoke, 
whenever the public interest shall so demand, the 
authorization granted for the establishment of the 
associations in question. 

Art. 29. In cases of invasion, grave disturbance 
of the public peace, or any other emergency which 
may place society in grave danger or conflict, the 
President of the Republic of Mexico, and no one 
else, with the concurrence of the council of minis- 
ters, and with the approval of the Congress, or if 
the latter shall be in recess, of the Permanent 



184. APPENDIX B 

Committee, shall have power to suspend through- 
out the whole Eepublic or in any portion thereof, 
such guarantees as shall be a hindrance in meet- 
ing the situation promptly and readily; but such 
suspension shall in no case be confined to a par- 
ticular individual, but shall be made by means of 
a general decree and only for a limited period. If 
the suspension occur while the Congress is in ses- 
sion, this body shall grant such powers as in its 
judgment the Executive may need to meet the sit- 
uation ; if the suspension occur while the Congress 
is in recess, the Congress shall be convoked forth- 
with for the granting of such powers. 

CHAPTER II 

Of Mexicans 

Art. 30. Several of the provisions of this article 
follow the Naturalization Law of May 28, 1886, 
while others are a radical departure in the ju- 
ridical theories hitherto accepted in Mexico. A 
Mexican shall be such either by birth or by nat- 
uralization. 

I. Mexicans by birth are those bom of Mexican 
parents, within or without the Republic, provided 
in the latter case the parents be also Mexicans by 
birth. Persons born within the Republic of for- 
eign parentage shall likewise be considered Mexi- 
cans by birth, who within one year after they come 
of age shall declare to the Department of Foreign 
Affairs that they elect Mexican citizenship, and 



APPENDIX B 185 

who shall furthermore prove to the said Depart- 
ment that they have resided within the country 
during the six years immediately prior to the said 
declaration. 
11. Mexicans by naturalization are : 

(a) The children of foreign parentage born in 
the country, who shall elect Mexican citizenship in 
the manner prescribed in the foregoing clause, and 
in whom the residence qualification required in the 
said section does not concur. 

(b) Those persons who shall have resided in the 
country for five consecutive years, have an honest 
means of livelihood and shall have obtained nat- 
uralization from the said Department of Foreign 
Affairs. 

(c) Those of mixed Indian and Latin descent 
who may have established residence in the Eepub- 
lic, and shall have manifested their intention to 
acquire Mexican citizenship. 

In the cases stipulated in these sections, the law 
shall determine the manner of proving the req- 
uisites therein demanded. 

Art. 31. It shall be the duty of every Mexican : 

I. To compel the attendance at either private 
or public schools of their children or wards, when 
under fifteen years of age, in order that they may 
receive primary instruction and military training 
for such periods as the law of public instruction in 
each State shall determine. 

II. To attend on such days and at such hours as 



186 APPENDIX B 

the town council shall in each, case prescribe, to 
receive such civic instruction and military training 
as shall fit them to exercise their civic rights, shall 
make them skillful in the handling of arms and 
familiar with military discipline. 

III. To enlist and serve in the national guard, 
pursuant to the respective organic law for the 
purpose of preserving and defending the inde- 
pendence, territory, honour, rights and interests 
of the country, as well as domestic peace and 
order. 

IV. To contribute in the proportional and equi- 
table manner provided by law toward the public 
expenses of the Federation, the State and the 
municipality in which he resides. 

Art. 32. Mexicans shall be preferred under 
equal circumstances to foreigners for all kinds of 
concessions and for all public employments, offices 
or commissions, when citizenship is not indispen- 
sable. No foreigner shall serve in the army nor 
in the police corps nor in any other department of 
public safety during times of peace. 

Only Mexicans by birth may belong to the na- 
tional navy, or fill any office or commission therein. 
The same requisite shall be required for captains, 
pilots, masters and chief engineers of Mexican 
merchant ships, as well as for two-thirds of the 
members of the crew. 



APPENDIX B 187 

CHAPTEE III 

Of Aliens 

Art. 33. Aliens are those who do not possess 
the qualifications prescribed by Article 30. They 
shall be entitled to the guarantees granted by 
Chapter I, Title I, of the present Constitution ; but 
the Executive shall have the exclusive right to ex- 
pel from the Eepublic forthwith, and without judi- 
cial process, any foreigner whose presence he may 
deem inexpedient. 

No foreigner shall meddle in any way whatso- 
ever in the political affairs of the country. 

CHAPTER IV 

Of Mexican Citizens 

Art. 34. Mexican citizenship shall be enjoyed 
only by those Mexicans who have the following 
qualifications : 

I. Are over 21 years of age, if unmarried, and 
over 18, if married. 

II. Have an honest means of livelihood. 

Art. 35. The prerogatives of citizens are : 

I. To vote at popular elections 

II. To be eligible for any elective office and be 
qualified for any other office or commission, pro- 
vided they have the other qualifications required 
by law. 



188 APPENDIX B 

III. To assemble for the purpose of discussing 
the political affairs of the country. 

IV. To serve in the army or national guard for 
the defense of the Republic and its institutions, as 
by law determined. 

V. To exercise the right of petition in any mat- 
ter whatever. 

Art. 36. It shall be the duty of every Mexican 
citizen : 

I. To register in the polls of the municipality, 
setting forth any property he may own and his 
professional or industrial pursuit, or occupation; 
and also to register in the electoral registration 
lists, as by law determined. 

II. To enlist in the national guard. 

m. To vote at popular elections in the electoral 
district to which he belongs. 

IV. To fill the elective Federal or State offices 
to which he may be chosen, which service shall in 
no case be gratuitous. 

V. To serve on the town council of the munici- 
pality wherein he resides and to perform all elec- 
toral and jury service. 

Art. 37. Citizenship shall be lost: 

I. By naturalization in a foreign country. 

II. By officially serving the government of an- 
other country, or accepting its decorations, titles 
or employment without previous permission of the 
Federal Congress, excepting literary, scientific 



APPENDIX B 189 

and humanitarian titles which may be accepted 
freely. 

III. By compromising themselves in any way 
before ministers of any religious creed or before 
any other person not to observe the present Con- 
stitution, or the laws arising thereunder. 

Art. 38. The rights or prerogatives of citizen- 
ship shall be suspended for the following reasons : 

I. Through failure to comply, without sufficient 
cause, with any of the obligations imposed by 
Article 36. This suspension shall last for one year 
and shall be in addition to any other penalties 
prescribed by law for the same offense. 

II. Through being subjected to criminal prose- 
cution for an offense punishable with imprison- 
ment, such suspension to be reckoned from the 
date of the formal order of commitment. 

III. Throughout the term of imprisonment. 

IV. Through vagrancy or habitual drunkenness, 
declared in the manner provided by law. 

V. Through being a fugitive from justice, the 
suspension to be reckoned from the date of the 
order of arrest until the prescription of the crim- 
inal action. 

VI. Through any final sentence which shall de- 
cree as a penalty such suspension. 

The law shall determine the cases in which civic 
rights may be lost or suspended and the manner in 
which they may be regained. 



190 APPENDIX B 



Title II 



CHAPTER I 



Of the National Sovereignty and Form of 
Government 

Art. 39. The national sovereignty is vested es- 
sentially and originally in the people. All public 
power emanates from the people, and is instituted 
for their benefit. The people have at all times the 
inalienable right to alter or modify the form of 
their government. 

Art. 40. It is the will of the Mexican people to 
constitute themselves into a democratic, federal, 
representative republic, consisting of States, free 
and sovereign in all that concerns their internal 
affairs, but united in a federation according to the 
principles of this fundamental law. 

Art. 41. The people exercise their sovereignty 
through the federal powers in the matters belong- 
ing to the Union, and through those of the States 
in the matters relating to the internal administra- 
tion of the latter. This power shall be exercised 
in the manner respectively established by the Con- 
stitutions, both Federal and State. The constitu- 
tions of the States shall in no case contravene the 
stipulations of the Federal constitution. . 



APPENDIX B 191 



CHAPTEE II 

Of the Integral Parts of the Federation and the 
National Territory 

Art. 42. The national territory comprises the 
integral parts of the Federation and the adjacent 
islands in both oceans. It likewise comprises the 
Island of Guadalupe, those of Eevillagigedo, and 
that of ' 'La Pasion," situated in the Pacific Ocean. 

Art. 43. The integral parts of the Federation 
are: The States of Aguascalientes, Campeche, 
Coahuila, Colima, Chiapas, Chihuahua, Durango, 
Gruanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Mexico, 
Michoacan, Morelos, Nayarit (see Art. 47), Nuevo 
Leon, Oaxaca, Puebla, Queretaro, San Luis Potosi, 
Sinaloa, Sonora, Tabasco, Tamaulipas, Tlaxcala, 
Vera Cruz, Yucatan, Zacatecas, the Federal Dis- 
trict, the Territory of Lower California, and the 
Territory of Quintana Roo. 

Art. 44. The Federal District shall embrace its 
present territory; in the event of the removal of 
the Federal Powers to some other place it shall be 
created into the State of the Valley of Mexico, 
with such boundaries and area as the Federal Con- 
gress shall assign to it. 

Art. 45. The States and Territories of the Fed- 
eration shall keep their present boundaries and 



192 APPENDIX B 

areas, provided no boundary question shall exist 
between them. 

Art. 46. The States having pending boundary 
questions shall arrange or settle them as provided 
by this Constitution. 

Art. 47. The State of Nayarit shall have the 
territorial area and boundaries at present com- 
prising the Territory of Tepic. 

Art. 48. The islands in both oceans embraced 
within the national territory shall depend directly 
on the Federal Government, excepting those over 
which the States have up to the present time exer- 
cised jurisdiction. 

Title HI 

CHAPTER I 

Of the Division of Powers 

Art. 49. The supreme power of the Federation 
is divided for its exercise into legislative, execu- 
tive and judicial. 

Two or more of these powers shall never be 
united in one person or corporation, nor shall the 
legislative power be vested in one individual ex- 
cept in the case of extraordinary powers granted 
to the Executives, in accordance with the pro- 
visions of Article 29. 



APPENDIX B 193 

CHAPTER II 

Of the Legislative Power 

Art. 50. The legislative power of the United 
States of Mexico is vested in a general Congress 
which shall consist of a House of Representatives 
and a Senate. 

SECTION- I 

Of the Election and Installation of the Congress 

Art. 51. The House of Representatives shall 
consist of representatives of the Nation, all of 
whom shall be elected every two years by the 
citizens of Mexico. 

Art. 52. One Representative shall be chosen for 
each 60,000 inhabitants or for any fraction thereof 
exceeding 20,000, on the basis of the general census 
of the Federal District and of each State and 
Territory. Any State or Territory in which the 
population shall be less than that fixed by this 
article shall, nevertheless, elect one Representa- 
tive. 

Art. 53. There shall be elected an alternate for 
each Representative. 

Art. 54. The election of Representatives shall be 
direct, in accordance with the provisions of the 
electoral law. 



194 APPENDIX B 

Art. 55. Eepresentatives shall have the follow- 
ing qualifications : 

I. They shall be Mexican citizens by birth (see 
Art. 30) and in the enjoyment of their rights. 

II. They shall be over twenty-five years of age 
on the day of election. 

III. They shall be natives of the States or Ter- 
ritories respectively electing them, or domiciled 
and actually resident therein for six months im- 
mediately prior to the election. The domicile shall 
not be lost through absence in the discharge of any 
elective ofiice. 

IV. They shall not be in active service in the 
Federal army, not have any command in the police 
corps or rural constabulary in the districts where 
the elections respectively take place, for at least 
ninety days immediately prior to the election. 

V. They shall not hold the office of secretary nor 
assistant secretary of any executive department 
nor of justice of the supreme court, unless they 
shall have resigned therefrom ninety days imme- 
diately prior to the election. 

No State Governor, Secretary of State of the 
several States, nor State Judge shall be eligible in 
the Districts within their several jurisdictions, un- 
less they shall have resigned from their office 
ninety days immediately prior to the day of elec- 
tion. 

VI. They shall not be ministers of any religious 
creed. 



APPENDIX B 195 

Art. 56. The Senate shall consist of two Sen- 
ators from each State and two from the Federal 
District, chosen in direct election. 

Each State Legislature shall certify to the elec- 
tion of the candidate who shall have obtained a 
majority of the total number of votes cast. 

Art. 57. There shall be elected an alternate for 
each Senator. 

Art. 58. Each Senator shall serve four years. 
The Senate shall be renewed by half every two 
years. 

Art. 59. The qualifications necessary to be a 
Senator shall be the same as those necessary to be 
a Eepresentative, excepting that of age, which 
shall be over thirty-five on the day of election. 

Art. 60. Each House shall be the judge of the 
election of its members and shall decide all ques- 
tions arising therefrom. 

Its decisions shall be final. 

Art. 61. Representatives and Senators are in- 
violable for opinions expressed by them in the dis- 
charge of their duties, and shall never be called to 
account for them. 

Art. 62. Representatives and Senators shaU be 
disqualified during the terms for which they have 
been elected from holding any Federal or State 



196 APPENDIX B 

commission or office for which any emolument is 
received without previous permission of the re- 
spective House; in the event of their accepting 
such commission or office they shall forthwith lose 
their representative character for such time as 
they shall hold such appointive office. The same 
provision shall apply to alternate Representatives 
and Senators, when in active service. The viola- 
tion of this provision shall be punished by for- 
feiture of the office of Representative or Senator. 

Art. 63. The Houses shall not open their ses- 
sions nor exercise their functions without a 
quorum, in the Senate of two-thirds, and in the 
House of Representatives of a majority of the 
total membership; but the members present of 
either House shall meet on the day appointed by 
law and compel the attendance of the absentees 
within the next thirty days, and they shall warn 
them that failure to comply with this provision 
shall be taken to be a refusal of office, and the 
corresponding alternates shall be summoned forth- 
with ; the latter shall have a similar period within 
which to present themselves, and on their failure 
to do so the seats shall be declared vacant and new 
elections called. 

Representatives or Senators who shall be ab- 
sent during ten consecutive days without proper 
cause or without leave of the President of the re- 
spective House, notice of which shall be duly com- 
municated to the House, shall be understood as 



APPENDIX B 197 

waiving their right to attend until the next ses- 
sion, and their alternates shall be summoned with- 
out delay. 

If there shall be no quorum to organise either of 
the Houses or to continue their labours, once or- 
ganised, the alternates shall be ordered to present 
themselves as soon as possible for the purpose of 
taking office until the expiration of the thirty days 
hereinbefore mentioned. 

Art. 64. No Eepresentative or Senator who 
shall fail to attend any daily session without 
proper cause or without previous permission of 
the respective House, shall be entitled to the com- 
pensation corresponding to the day on which he 
shall have been absent. 

Art. 65. The Congress shall meet on the first 
day of September of each year in regular session 
for the consideration of the following matters : 

I. To audit the accounts of the previous year 
which shall be submitted to the House of Repre- 
sentatives not later than ten days after the open- 
ing of the session. The audit shall not be confined 
to determining whether the expenditures do or do 
not conform with the respective items in the 
Budget, but shall comprise an examination of the 
exactness of, and authorisation for, payments 
made thereunder, and of any liability arising from 
such payments. 

No other secret items shall be permitted than 



198 APPENDIX B 

those which the Budget may consider necessary as 
such ; these amounts shall be paid out by the sec- 
retaries of executive departments under written 
orders of the President. 

II. To examine, discuss and approve the Budget 
for the next fiscal year, and to lay such taxes as 
may be needed to meet the expenditures. 

III. To study, discuss and vote on all bills pre- 
sented and to discuss all other matters incumbent 
upon the Congress by virtue of this Constitution. 

Art. 66. The regular session of the Congress 
shall last the period necessary to deal with all of 
the matters mentioned in the foregoing article, but 
it may not be extended beyond the thirty-first day 
of December of the same year. Should both 
Houses fail to agree as to adjournment prior to 
the above date, the matter shall be decided by the 
Executive. 

Art. 67. The Congress shall meet in extraordi- 
nary session whenever so summoned by the Presi- 
dent, but in such event it shall consider only the 
matter or matters submitted to it by the President, 
who shall enumerate it or them in the respective 
call. The President shall have power to convene 
in extraordinary session only one of the Houses 
when the matter to be referred to it pertains to its 
exclusive jurisdiction. 

Art. 68. Both Houses shall hold their meetings 
in the same place and shall not move to another 



APPENDIX B 199 

without having first agreed upon the moving and 
the time and manner of accomplishing it, as well 
as upon the place of meeting, which shall be the 
same for both Houses. If both Houses agree to 
change their meeting place but disagree as to the 
time, manner and place the President shall settle 
the question by choosing one of the two proposals. 
Neither House may suspend its sessions for more 
than three days without the consent of the other. 

Art. 69. The President of the Eepublic shall 
attend at the opening of the sessions of the Con- 
gress, whether regular or extraordinary, and shall 
submit a report in writing ; this report shall, in the 
former case, relate to the general state of the 
Union; and in the latter, it shall explain to the 
Congress or to the House addressed the reasons 
or causes which rendered the call necessary and 
the matters requiring inunediate attention. 

Art. 70. Every measure of the Congress shall 
be in the form of a law or decree. The laws or 
decrees shall be communicated to the Executive 
after having been signed by the Presidents of both 
Houses and by one of the secretaries of each. 
When promulgated, the enacting clause shall read 
as follows : 

''The Congress of the United States of Mexico 
decrees (text of the law or decree)." 



200 APPENDIX B 

SECTION- II 

Of the Origin and Formation of the Laws 

Art. 71. The right to originate legislation per- 
tains : 

I. To the President of the Eepublic; 

II. To the Representatives and Senators of the 
Congress ; 

III. To the State Legislatures. 

Bills submitted by the President of the Republic, 
by State Legislatures or by delegations of the 
States shall be at once referred to committee. 
Those introduced by Representatives or Senators 
shall be subject to the rules of procedure. 

Art. 72. Bills, action on which shall not pertain 
exclusively to one of the Houses, shall be discussed 
first by one and then by the other, according to the 
rules of procedure as to the form, time of pres- 
entation and other details relative to discussions 
and votes. 

(a) After a bill has been approved in the House 
where it originated it shall be sent to the other 
House for consideration. If passed by the latter 
it shall be transmitted to the President who, if he 
has no observations to make thereto, shall imme- 
diately promulgate it. 

(b) Bills not returned by the Executive within 
ten working days with his observations to the 
House in which they originated, shall be oonsid- 



APPENDIX B 201 

ered approved, "unless during the said ten days 
the Congress shall have adjourned or suspended 
its sessions, in which event they shall be returned 
on the first working day after the Congress shall 
have reconvened. 

(c) Bills rejected in whole or in part by the 
Executive shall be returned with his observations 
to the House where they originated. They shall 
be discussed anew by this House and if confirmed 
by a two-thirds majority vote of the total mem- 
bership shall be sent to the other House for re- 
consideration. If approved by it, also by the 
same majority vote, the bill shall become law and 
shall be returned to the Executive for promulga- 
tion. 

The voting in both Houses shall be by yeas and 
nays. 

(d) Bills totally rejected by the House not orig- 
inating them shall be returned with the proper 
observations to the House of origin. If examined 
anew and approved by a majority of the mem- 
bers present, they shall be returned to the House 
rejecting them, which shall once again take them 
under consideration, and if approved by it, like- 
wise by the same majority vote, they shall be sent 
to the Executive for the purposes of Clause A; 
but if the said House fail to approve them, they 
shall not be reintroduced in the same session. 

(e) Bills rejected in part or modified or 
amended by the House of revision shall be dis- 
cussed anew in the House of origin, but the dis- 



W2 APPENDIX B 

cussion shall be confined to the portion rejected 
or to the amendments or additions, without the 
approved articles being altered in any respect. If 
the additions or amendments made by the House 
of revision be approved by a majority vote of the 
members present in the House of origin, the bill 
shall be transmitted to the Executive for the pur- 
poses of Clause A ; but if the amendments or ad- 
ditions by the House of revision be rejected by a 
majority vote of the House of origin they shall 
be returned to the former House in order that the 
reasons set forth by the latter may be taken into 
consideration. If in this second revision the said 
additions or amendments be rejected by a major- 
ity vote of the members present the portion of the 
bill which has been approved by both Houses shall 
be sent to the Executive for the purposes of Clause 
A. If the House of revision insist by a majority 
vote of the members present upon the additions 
or amendments, no action shall be taken on the 
whole bill until the next session, unless both 
Houses agree, by a majority vote of the members 
present, to the promulgation of the law without 
the articles objected to, which shall be left till the 
next session, when they shall be then discussed 
and voted upon. 

(f) The same formalities as are required for 
the enactment of laws shall be observed for their 
interpretation, amendment or repeal. 

(g) No bill rejected in the House of origin be- 



APPENDIX B 203 

fore passing to the other House shall be reintro- 
duced during the session of that year. 

(h) Legislative measures may be originated in 
either House, excepting bills dealing with loans, 
taxes or imposts, or with the raising of troops, 
which must have their origin in the House of 
Eepresentatives. 

(i) Whenever a bill shall be presented to one 
House it shall be first discussed there unless one 
month shall have elapsed since it was referred to 
committee and not reported, in which event an 
identical bill may be presented and discussed in 
the other House. 

(j) The President shall not make any observa- 
tions touching the resolutions of the Congress or 
of either House when acting as an electoral body 
or as a grand jury, nor when the House of Eepre- 
sentatives shall declare that there are grounds to 
impeach any high federal authority for official 
offences. 

Nor shall he make any observations touching 
the order for a call issued by the Permanent 
Committee as provided in Article 84. 



SECTION- nr 
Of the Powers of the Congress 

Art. 73. The Congress shall have power : 
I. To admit new States or Territories into the 
Federal Union. 



204 APPENDIX B 

II. To grant statehood to Territories whicli 
have a population of eighty thousand inhabitants 
and the necessary means to provide for their 
political existence. 

III. To form new States within the boundaries 
of existing ones, provided the following requisites 
are complied with : 

1. That the section or sections aspiring to 
statehood have a population of one hundred and 
twenty thousand inhabitants at least ; 

2. That proof be given to the Congress that it 
has sufficient means to provide for its political 
existence ; 

3. That the legislatures of the States affected 
be heard as to the advisability or inadvisability 
of granting such statehood, which opinion shall be 
given within six months reckoned from the day 
on which the respective communication is for- 
warded ; 

4. That the opinion of the Executive of the 
Federal Government be also heard on the subject ; 
this opinion shall be given within seven days after 
the date on which it was requested. 

5. That the creation of the new State be voted 
upon favorably by two-thirds of the Eepresenta- 
tives and Senators present in their respective 
Houses. 

6. That the resolution of the Congress be 
ratified by a majority of the State Legislatures, 
upon examination of a copy of the record of the 
case, provided that the Legislatures of the States 



APPENDIX B 205 

to wMch the section belongs shall have given their 
consent. 

7. Th^at the ratification referred to in the fore- 
going clause be given by two-thirds of the legis- 
latures of the other States, if the legislatures of 
the States to which the Section belongs have not 
given their consent. 

IV. To settle finally the limits of the States, 
terminating the differences which may arise be- 
tween them relative to the demarcation of their 
respective territories, except when the differences 
be of a litigious nature. 

V. To change the residence of the supreme 
powers of the Federation. 

VI. To legislate in all matters relating to the 
Federal District and the Territories, as herein- 
after provided: 

1. The Federal District and the Territories 
shall be divided into municipalities, each of which 
shall have the area and population sufficient for 
its own support and for its contribution toward 
the common expenses. 

2. Each municipality shall be governed by a 
town council elected by direct vote of the people. 

3. The Federal District and each of the Terri- 
tories shall be administered by governors under 
the direct orders of the President of the Republic. 
The Governor of the Federal District shall de- 
spatch with the President, and the Governor of 
each Territory shall despatch with the President 
through the duly constituted channels. The Gov- 



206 APPENDIX B 

ernor of the Federal District and the Governor of 
each Territory shall be appointed by the Presi- 
dent and may be removed by him at will. 

4. The Superior Judges and those of First In- 
stance of the Federal District as well as of the 
Territories shall be named by the Congress, act- 
ing in each case as an electoral college. In the 
temporary or permanent absences of the said 
Superior Judges these shall be replaced by ap- 
pointment of the Congress, and in recess by tem- 
porary appointments of the Permanent Com- 
mittee. The organic law shall determine the man- 
ner of filling temporary vacancies in the case of 
judges, and shall designate the authority before 
whom they shall be called to account for any 
dereliction, excepting the provisions of this Con- 
stitution with regard to the responsibility of offi- 
cials. From and after the year 1923 the Superior 
Judges and those of First Instance to which this 
clause refers may only be removed from office for 
bad conduct and after impeachment, unless they 
shall have been promoted to the next higher grade. 
From and after the said date the compensation 
enjoyed by said officials shall not be diminished 
during their term of office. 

5. The office of the Public Attorney (Minis- 
terio Publico) of the Federal District and of the 
Territories, shall be in charge of an Attorney 
General, who shall reside in the City of Mexico, 
and of such Public Attorney or Attorneys as the 
law may determine; the said Attorney General 



APPENDIX B 207 

shall be under the direct orders of the President 
of the Republic, who shall appoint and remove 
him at will. 

VII. To lay the taxes necessary to meet the 
expenditures of the budget. 

Vm. To establish the bases upon which the 
Executive may make loans on the credit of the 
nation ; to approve the said loans and to acknowl- 
edge and order the payment of the national debt. 

IX. To enact tariff laws on foreign commerce 
and to prevent restrictions from being imposed on 
interstate commerce. 

X. To legislate for the entire Republic in all 
matters relating to mining, commerce, and insti- 
tutions of credit, and to establish the sole bank of 
issue, as provided in Article 28 of this Constitu- 
tion. 

XI. To create or abolish Federal offices, and 
to fix, increase, or decrease the compensations as- 
signed thereto. 

XII. To declare war, upon examination of the 
facts submitted by the Executive. 

XIII. To regulate the manner in which letters 
of marque may be issued ; to enact laws according 
to which prizes on sea and land shall be adjudged 
valid or invalid ; and to frame the admiralty law 
for times of peace and war. 

XIV. To raise and maintain the army and 
navy of the Union, and to regulate their organiza- 
tion and service. 

XV. To make rules for the organization and 



208 APPENDIX B 

discipline of the National Guard, reserving for the 
citizens who compose it the right of appointing 
their respective commanders and officers, and to 
the States the power of instructing it in conform- 
ity with the discipline prescribed by the said 
regulations. 

XVI. To enact laws on citizenship, naturaliza- 
tion, colonization, emigration, immigration and 
public health of the Eepublic. 

1. The Public Health Service shall depend di- 
rectly upon the President of the Eepublic, with- 
out the intervention of any executive depart- 
ment, and its general provisions shall be binding 
throughout the Eepublic. 

2. In the event of epidemics of a grave or dan- 
gerous nature, of the invasion of diseases from 
abroad, the Public Health Service shall put into 
force without delay the necessary preventive 
measures, subject to their subsequent sanction by 
the President of the Eepublic. 

3. The sanitary authorities shall have execu- 
tive faculties and their determinations shall be 
obeyed by the administrative authorities of the 
country. 

4. All measures which the Public Health Serv- 
ice shall have put into effect in its campaign 
against alcoholism and the sale of substances in- 
jurious to man and tending to degenerate the race 
shall be subsequently revised by the Congress, in 
such cases as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
latter. 



APPENDIX B 209 

XVII. To enact laws on general means of 
oommnnication, postroads and post offices and to 
enact laws as to the use and development of the 
waters subject to the Federal jurisdiction. 

XVni. To establish mints, regulate the value 
and kinds of the national coin, fix the value of 
foreign moneys, and adopt a general system of 
weights and measures. 

XIX. To make rules for the occupation and 
alienation of public lands and the prices thereof. 

XX. To enact laws as to the organization of 
the diplomatic and consular services. 

XXI. To define the crimes and offenses against 
the Nation and to fix the penalties therefor. 

XXII. To grant pardons for offenses subject 
to federal jurisdiction. 

XXIII. To make rules for its internal govern- 
ment and to enact the necessary provisions to 
compel the attendance of absent Eepresentatives 
and Senators and to punish the acts of commis- 
sion or omission of those present. 

XXIV. To issue the organic law of the office 
of the Comptroller of the Treasury. 

XXV. To sit as an electoral college and to 
name the Justices of the Supreme Court, and the 
Superior and Inferior Judges of the Federal Dis- 
trict and Territories. 

XXVI. To accept the resignation of the Jus- 
tices of the Supreme Court and of the Superior 
and Inferior Judges of the Federal District and 



210 APPENDIX B 

Territories, and to name substitutes in their ab- 
sence and to appoint their successors. 

XXVII. To establish professional schools of 
scientific research and fine arts, vocational, agri- 
cultural and trade schools, museums, libraries, 
observatories and other institutes of higher learn- 
ing, until such time as these establishments can 
be supported by private funds. These powers 
shall not pertain exclusively to the Federal Gov- 
ernment. 

All degrees conferred by any of the above in- 
stitutions shall be valid throughout the Republic. 

XXVIII. To sit as an electoral college and to 
choose the person to assume the office of Presi- 
dent of the Republic, either as a substitute Presi- 
dent or as a President ad interim in the terms 
established by Articles 84 and 85 of this Constitu- 
tion. 

XXIX. To accept the resignation of the Presi- 
dent of the Republic. 

XXX. To audit the accounts which shall be 
submitted annually by the Executive; this audit 
shall comprise not only the checking of the items 
disbursed under the Budget but the exactness of 
and authorization for the expenditures in each 
case. 

XXXI. To make all laws necessary for carry- 
ing into execution the foregoing powers and all 
other powers vested by this Constitution in the 
several branches of the Government. 



APPENDIX B 211 

Art. 74. The House of Eepresentatives shall 
have the following exclusive powers : 

I. To sit as an electoral college to exercise the 
powers conferred by law as to the election of the 
President. 

II. To watch by means of a committee ap- 
pointed from among its own members over the 
faithful performance by the Comptroller of the 
Treasury in the discharge of his duties. 

III. To appoint all the higher officers and 
other employees of the office of the Comptroller 
of the Treasury. 

IV. To approve the annual Budget, after a dis- 
cussion as to what taxes must in its judgment be 
laid to meet the necessary expenditures. 

V. To take cognizance of all charges brought 
against public officials, as herein provided, for 
official offenses, and should the circumstances so 
warrant to impeach them before the Senate ; and 
further to act as a grand jury to decide whether 
there is or is not good ground for proceeding 
against any official enjoying constitutional privi- 
leges, whenever accused of offenses of the common 
order. 

VI. To exercise such other powers as may be 
expressly vested in it by this Constitution. 

Art. 75. The House of Eepresentatives, in 
passing the Budget, shall not fail to assign a defi- 
nite compensation to every office created by law, 
and if for any reason such compensation shall not 



212 APPENDIX B 

be assigned, the amount fixed in the preceding 
Budget or in the law creating the office shall be 
presumed to be assigned. 

Art. 76. The Senate shall have the following 
exclusive powers : 

I. To approve the treaties and diplomatic con- 
ventions concluded by the Executive with foreign 
powers. 

II. To confirm the nominations made by the 
President of diplomatic ministers or agents, con- 
suls general, higher officials of the treasury, 
colonels and other superior officers of the army 
and navy, in the manner and form by law pro- 
vided. 

III. To authorize the Executive to allow na- 
tional troops to go beyond the limits of the Re- 
public, or to permit foreign troops to pass 
through the national territory, and to consent to 
the presence of fleets of another nation for more 
than one month in Mexican waters. 

IV. To consent to the Executive disposing of 
the national guard outside of the limits of its re- 
spective States or Territories, and to fix the 
amount of the force to be used. 

V. To declare, when all the constitutional 
powers of any State have disappeared, that the 
occasion has arisen to give to the said State a 
provisional governor, who shall call for elections 
to be held according to the constitution and laws 
of the said State. The appointment of snch a 



APPENDIX B 213 

governor shall be made by the Senate with the 
approval of two-thirds of its members present or 
during recess by the Permanent Committee by the 
same two-thirds majority, from among three 
names submitted by the President. The official 
thus selected shall not be chosen constitutional 
governor in the elections to be held under the call 
which he shall issue. This provision shall gov- 
ern whenever the State Constitutions do not pro- 
vide for the contingency. 

VI. To sit as a Grand Jury to take cognizance 
of such official offenses of functionaries as are ex- 
pressly prescribed by this Constitution. 

VII. To exercise such other powers as may be 
expressly vested in it by this Constitution. 

VIII. To adjust all political questions arising 
between the powers of a State whenever one of 
them shall appeal to the Senate or whenever by 
virtue of such differences a clash of arms has 
arisen to interrupt the constitutional order. In 
this event the Senate shall decide in accordance 
with the Federal Constitution and the Constitu- 
tion of the State involved. 

The exercise of this power and of the foregoing 
shall be regulated by law. 

Art. 77. Each House may, without the inter- 
vention of the other: 

I. Pass resolutions upon matters exclusively 
relating to its own interior government. 

II. Communicate with the other House, and 



214 APPENDIX B 

with the Executive through committees appointed 
from among its members. 

III. Appoint the employees in the office of its 
secretary, and make all rules and regulations for 
the said office. 

IV. Issue a call for extraordinary elections to 
fill any vacancies which may occur in its member- 
ship. 



SECTION IV 

Of the Permanent Committee 

Art. 78. During the recess of the Congress 
there shall be a Permanent Committee consisting 
of twenty-nine members, fifteen of whom shall be 
Eepresentatives and fourteen Senators, appointed 
by the respective Houses on the eve of the day of 
adjournment. 

Art. 79. In addition to the powers expressly 
vested in it by this Constitution, the Permanent 
Committee shall have the following powers : 

I. To give its consent to the use of the national 
guard as provided in Article 76, Clause IV. 

II. To administer the oath of office, should the 
occasion arise, to the President, to the Justices of 
the Supreme Court, to the Superior Judges of the 
Federal District and Territories, on such occa- 
sions as the latter officials may happen to be in the 
City of Mexico. 



APPENDIX B 215 

III. To report on all pending matters, so that 
they may be considered in the next session. 

IV. To call extraordinary sessions in the case 
of official offenses or offenses of the common order 
committed by Secretaries of Executive Depart- 
ments or Justices of the Supreme Court, and offi- 
cial offenses committed by State Governors, pro- 
vided the case shall have been already instituted 
by the Committee of the Grand Jury, in which 
event no other business of the Congress shall be 
considered, nor shall the sessions be prolonged 
beyond tlie time necessary for a decision. 



CHAPTER ni 

Of the Executive Power 

Art. 80. The exercise of the supreme executive 
power of the Union is vested in a single indi- 
vidual, who shall be called ''President of the 
United States of Mexico." 

Art. 81. The election of President shall be di- 
rect, in accordance with the terms of the electoral 
law. 

Art. 82. The President of the Republic shall 
have the following qualifications : 

I. He shall be a Mexican citizen by birth, in 
the full enjoyment of his rights, and he must be 
the son of Mexican parents by birth. 



216 APPENDIX B 

II. He shall be over thirty-five years of age 
at the time of election. 

in. He shall have resided in the country dur- 
ing the entire year prior to the election. 

IV. He shaU not belong to the ecclesiastical 
state nor be a minister of any religious creed. 

V. In the event of belonging to the army, he 
shall have retired from active service 90 days im- 
mediately prior to the election. 

VI. He shall not be a secretary or assistant 
secretary of any executive department, unless he 
shall have resigned from office 90 days prior to 
the election. 

VII. He shall not have taken part, directly or 
indirectly, in any uprising, riot or military coup. 

Art. 83. The President shall enter upon the 
duties of his office on the first day of December, 
shall serve four years and shall never be re- 
elected. 

The citizen who shall replace the constitutional 
President in the event of his permanent disability 
shall not be elected President for the ensuing 
term. 

Nor shall the person designated as Acting 
President during the temporary disabilities of the 
constitutional President be re-elected President 
for the ensuing term. 

Art. 84. In the event of the permanent disabil- 
ity of the President of the Republic, if this shall 



APPENDIX B 217 

occtir within the first two years of the respective 
term, the Congress, if in session, shall forthwith 
ac^as an electoral college, and with the attendance 
of at least two-thirds of its total membership shall 
choose a President by secret ballot and by a ma- 
jority vote; and the same Congress shall issue 
the call for Presidential elections and shall en- 
deavor to have the date set for this event as far 
as possible coincide with the date of the next elec- 
tion of Representatives and Senators to Congress. 

Should the disability of the President occur 
while Congress is in recess, the Permanent Com- 
mittee shall forthwith designate a President ad 
interim who shall call Congress together in 
extraordinary session, in order that it may in turn 
issue the call for Presidential elections in the man- 
ner provided in the foregoing paragraph. 

Should the disability of the President occur in 
the last two years of the respective term, the 
Congress, if in session, shall choose the substitute 
to conclude the period of the presidential term ; if 
Congress shall not be in session the Permanent 
Committee shall choose a President ad interim 
and shall summon Congress in extraordinary ses- 
sion, in order that it may act as an electoral college 
and proceed to the election of the substitute 
President. 

The President ad interim may be chosen by 
Congress as substitute President. 

The citizen designated as President ad interim 
for the purpose of calling elections, in the event 



218 APPENDIX B 

of the disability of the President within the two 
first years of the respective term, shall not be 
chosen in the elections held to fill such vacancy 
and for which he was designated. 

Art. 85. If the President-Elect shall fail to 
present himself at the beginning of any constitu- 
tional term, or the election not have been held and 
the result made known by the first of December, 
the outgoing President shall nevertheless vacate 
office and the President ad interim chosen by the 
Congress, or in its recess by the Permanent Com- 
mittee, shall forthwith assume the executive 
power. All action taken hereunder shall be gov- 
erned by the provisions of the foregoing article. 

In case of a temporary disability of the 
President, the Congress, or the Permanent Com- 
mittee if the Congress shall not be in session, shall 
designate an Acting President during such dis- 
ability. If a temporary disability shall become 
permanent, the action prescribed in the preceding 
article shall be taken. 

In the event of a leave of absence granted to 
the President of the Republic the person acting 
in his stead shall not be disqualified from being 
elected in the ensuing period, provided he shall 
not have been in office during the holding of elec- 
tions. 

Art. 86. The President shall not resign office 
except for grave cause, upon which the Congress 



APPENDIX B 219 

shall pass, to whicli body the resignation shall be 
tendered. 



Art. 87. The President, before entering upon 
the discharge of the duties of his office, shall make 
the following affirmation before the Congress, or 
in its recess before the Permanent Committee : 

"I do solemnly affirm that I will defend and 
enforce the Constitution of the United States of 
Mexico and the laws arising thereunder and that 
I will faithfully and conscientiously perform the 
duties of President of the United States of Mex- 
ico, to which I have been chosen by the people, 
having ever in mind the welfare and prosperity 
of the Nation; if I shall fail to do so, may the 
Nation call me to account." 

Art. 88. The President shall not absent him- 
self from the national territory without the per- 
mission of the Congress. 

Art. 89. The President shall have the following 
powers and duties : 

I. To promulgate and execute the laws enacted 
by the Congress, providing, within the executive 
sphere, for their faithful observance. 

II. To appoint and remove at will the Secre- 
taries of Executive Departments, the Attorney 
General of the Kepublic, the Governor of the Fed- 
eral District, the Governors of Territories, the 
Attorney General of the Federal District and 



220 APPENDIX B 

Territories; and to appoint and remove at will 
all other Federal employees whose appointment 
or removal is not otherwise provided for by law 
or in this Constitution. 

III. To appoint, with the approval of the 
Senate, all ministers, diplomatic agents and con- 
suls general. 

IV. To appoint, with the approval of the Sen- 
ate, the colonels and other superior officers of the 
army and navy and the superior officials of the 
treasury. 

V. To appoint all other officers of the national 
army and navy, as by law provided. 

VI. To dispose of the permanent land and sea 
forces for the domestic safety and foreign defense 
of the Union. 

VII. To dispose of the national guard for the 
same purposes, as provided by Article 76, Clause 
IV. 

VIII. To declare war in the name of the United 
States of Mexico, after the passage of the cor- 
responding resolution by the Congress of the 
Union. 

IX. To grant letters of marque, upon the terms 
and conditions fixed by the Congress. 

X. To conduct diplomatic negotiations and to 
make treaties. 

XI. To call Congress, or either of the Houses, 
in extraordinary session, whenever in his judg- 
ment it may be advisable. 

Xn. To afford the judiciary the assistance 



APPENDIX B 221 

necessary for the expeditious exercise of its func- 
tions. 

XIII. To open all kinds of ports, establish 
maritime and frontier custom houses and desig- 
nate their location. 

XIV. To grant, according to law, pardons to 
criminals sentenced for offenses within the juris- 
diction of the Federal tribunals, and to all persons 
sentenced for offenses of the common order in the 
Federal District and Territories. 

XV. To grant exclusive privileges for a limited 
time, and according to the respective laws, to dis- 
coverers, inventors or improvers in any branch 
of industry. 

XVI. Whenever the Senate shall not be in ses- 
sion the President may temporarily make the 
nominations enumerated in Clauses III and IV 
hereof, but these nominations shall be submitted 
to the Senate so soon as it reconvenes. 

XVII. To exercise such other rights and duties 
as are expressly conferred upon him by this Con- 
stitution. 

Art. 90. For the transaction of administrative 
matters of the Federal Government there shall be 
the number of Secretaries of Executive Depart- 
ments which the Congress may by law establish, 
which law shall likewise assign among the various 
departments the several matters with which each 
shall be charged. 



222 APPENDIX B 

Art. 91. No person shall be appointed Secre- 
tary of an Executive Department who is not a 
Mexican citizen by birth, in the enjoyment of his 
rights and who has not attained the age of thirty 
years. 

Art. 92. All regulations, decrees and orders 
of the President shall be signed by the Secretary 
of the Executive Department to which the matter 
pertains. They shall not be binding without this 
requisite. All regulations, decrees and orders of 
the President touching the government of the 
Federal District and the administrative depart- 
ments shall be transmitted directly by the Presi- 
dent to the Governor of the District and to the 
chief of the respective department. 

Art. 93. The Secretaries of Executive Depart- 
ments shall on the opening of each regular session 
report to the Congress as to the state of their 
respective Departments. Either House may sum- 
mon a Secretary of an Executive Department to 
inform it, whenever a bill or other matter per- 
taining to his department is under discussion or 
consideration. 

CHAPTER IV 

Of the Judicial Power 

Art. 94. The judicial power of the Federation 
is vested in a Supreme Court and in Circuit and 
District Courts, whose number and powers shall 



APPENDIX B 223 

be fixed by law. The Supreme Court of Justice 
shall consist of eleven members ; its sittings shall 
be in banc and its hearings shall be public, except 
in the cases where public interest or morality 
shall otherwise require. It shall meet at such 
times and under such conditions as by law pre- 
scribed. No sittings of the court shall be held 
without the attendance of at least two-thirds of 
its total membership, and all decisions rendered 
shall be by a majority vote. 

The Justices of the Supreme Court chosen to 
this office in the forthcoming elections shall serve 
two years; those elected at the conclusion of this 
first term shall serve four years, and from and 
after the year 1923 the Justices of the Supreme 
Court, the Circuit and District Judges may only 
be removed for malfeasance and after impeach- 
ment proceedings, unless the Circuit and District 
Judges be promoted to the next higher grade. 

The same provision shall govern, in so far as 
it be applicable to the terms of two and four years, 
respectively, to which this article refers. 

Art. 95. The Justices of the Supreme Court 
shall have the following qualifications : 

I. They shall be Mexican citizens by birth, in 
the full enjoyment of their civil and political 
rights. 

II. They shall be over thirty-five years of age 
at the time of election. 

III. They shall be graduates in law of some 



224 APPENDIX B 

institution or corporation authorized by law to 
confer such degrees. 

IV. They shall be of good repute and not have 
been convicted of any offense punishable with 
more than one year's imprisonment; but convic- 
tion of larceny, deceit, forgery, embezzlement or 
any other offense seriously impairing their good 
name in the public mind shall disqualify them for 
office, whatever may have been the penalty im- 
posed. 

V. They shall have resided in the country for 
the last five years, except in the case of absence 
due to public service abroad for a period not ex- 
ceeding six months. 

Art. 96. The members of the Supreme Court 
of Justice shall be chosen by the Congress, acting 
as an electoral college; the presence of at least 
two-thirds of the total number of Representatives 
and Senators shall be necessary for such action. 
The election shall be by secret ballot and by a 
majority vote, and shall be held as among the 
candidates previously proposed, one being nomi- 
nated by each State legislature, as provided in 
the respective State laws. 

Should no candidate receive a majority on the 
first ballot, the balloting shall be repeated between 
the two candidates receiving the highest number 
of votes. 

Art. 97. All Circuit and District Judges shall 

be appointed by the Supreme Court of Justice; 



APPENDIX B 225 

they shall have such qualifications as by law re- 
quired, shall serve four years and shall not be 
removed except by impeachment proceedings or 
for incapacity to discharge their duties, in accord- 
ance with the law. 

The Supreme Court of Justice may remove the 
District Judges from one District to another, or 
it may fix their seats in another locality, as it 
may deem most advantageous to the public busi- 
ness. A similar procedure shall be observed in 
the case of Circuit Judges. 

The Supreme Court of Justice may likewise ap- 
point auxiliary Circuit and District Judges to 
assist in the labors of such courts as have an 
excessive amount of business, in order that the 
administration of justice may be speedy; it shall 
also name one or more of its members or some 
district or circuit judge or shall designate one or 
more special commissioners, whenever it shall 
deem it advisable or on the request of the Presi- 
dent or of either House or of any State Governor, 
solely for the purpose of inquiring into the be- 
havior of any judge or federal justice or into 
any fact or facts which amount to a violation of 
any individual rights or to the subversion of the 
popular will or any other offense punishable by 
Federal statute. 

The Circuit and District Courts shall be 
assigned among the several Justices of the Su- 
preme Court who shall visit them periodically, 



226 APPENDIX B 

shall observe the conduct of their judges, listen 
to any complaint presented against them and per- 
form all such other acts as the law may require. 
The Supreme Court shall appoint and remove at 
will its clerk of the court and other employees 
on the roster established by law. The Circuit and 
District Judges shall likewise appoint and remove 
at will their respective clerks and employees. 

The Supreme Court shall choose each year one 
of its members to act as Chief Justice, with the 
right of re-election. 

Each Justice of the Supreme Court on assuming 
office shall make an affirmation before Congress, 
or if this is in recess, before the Permanent Com- 
mittee, as follows: 

The Presiding Officer shall say : "Do you prom- 
ise to perform faithfully and conscientiously the 
duties of Justice of the Supreme Court with which 
you have been charged, and to defend and enforce 
the Constitution of the United States of Mexico 
and the laws arising thereunder, having ever in 
mind the welfare and prosperity of the Nation!" 
To which the Justice shall reply, ''I do." On 
which the Presiding Officer shall answer: "If 
you fail to do so, may the Nation call you to 
account. ' ' 

The Circuit and District Judges shall make the 
affirmation of office before the Supreme Court or 
before such other authority as the law may de- 
termine. 



APPENDIX B 227 

Art. 98. No temporary disability of a Justice 
of the Supreme Court not exceeding one month 
shall be filled, provided there be otherwise a 
quorum. In the absence of a quorum the Con- 
gress, or in its recess the Permanent Committee, 
shall name a substitute selected from among the 
candidates submitted by the States for the election 
of the justice in question and not chosen, to serve 
during such disability. If the disability does not 
exceed two months, the Congress, or during its 
recess the Permanent Committee, shall choose at 
will a temporary justice. 

In the event of the death, resignation or dis- 
qualification of any justice of the Supreme Court, 
a new election shall be held by the Congress to fill 
this vacancy as provided in Article 96. 

If the Congress shall not be in session, the Per- 
manent Committee shall make a temporary 
appointment until such time as the Congress shall 
convene and proceed to the corresponding elec- 
tion. 

Art. 99. The resignation of a justice of the 
Supreme Court shall only be accepted for grave 
cause, approved by the Congress, to whom the 
resignation shall be tendered. In the recesses 
of the Congress the power to act on this matter 
belongs to the Permanent Committee. 

Art. 100. The Supreme Court shall grant all 
leaves of absence of its members, when they do 



228 APPENDIX B 

not exceed one month; sucli as do exceed this 
period shall be granted by the House of Represen- 
tatives, or during its recess by the Permanent 
Committee. 

Art. 101. No Justice of the Supreme Court, 
Circuit or District Judge, nor clerk of any of these 
courts shall under any circumstances accept any 
State, Federal or private commission or office, 
excepting honorary titles from scientific, literary 
or charitable associations. The violation of this 
provision shall work a forfeiture of office. 

Art. 102. The office of the Public Attorney 
shall be organized in accordance with the law, and 
its officers shall be appointed and removed at will 
by the Executive. They shall be under the direc- 
tion of an Attorney General who shall possess the 
same qualifications as are required for the office 
of Justice of the Supreme Court. 

The Public Attorneys shall be charged with the 
judicial prosecution of all Federal offenses ; they 
shall accordingly sue out all orders of arrest, 
assemble and offer all evidence as to the respon- 
sibility of the accused, see that the trials are con- 
ducted in due order so that the administration of 
justice may be speedy, pray the imposition of 
sentence, and in general take part in all matters 
required by law. 

The Attorney General of the Republic shall per- 
sonally intervene in matters to which the Federal 



APPENDIX B 229 

Government is a party, in cases affecting minis- 
ters, diplomatic agents and consuls general, and 
in all controversies between two or more States 
of the Union, between the Federal Government 
and a State or between the several powers of a 
State. The Attorney General may either person- 
ally or through one of the Public Attorneys take 
part in all other cases in which the Public Attor- 
neys are called upon to act. 

The Attorney General shall be the legal advisor 
of the Government, and both he and the Public 
Attorneys under his orders shall faithfully obey 
the law and shall be liable for all breaches or for 
any violations which they may incur in the dis- 
charge of their duties. 

Art. 103. The Federal tribunals shall take cog- 
nizance of: 

I. All controversies arising Out of laws or acts 
of the authorities which shall infringe any per- 
sonal guarantees. 

II. All controversies arising out of laws or 
acts of the federal authorities which limit or en- 
croach upon the sovereignty of the States. 

III. All controversies arising out of laws or 
acts of the State authorities which invade the 
sphere of the Federal authorities. 

Art. 104. The Federal Tribunals shall have 
jurisdiction over : 
I. All controversies of a civil or criminal na- 



230 APPENDIX B 

ture arising out of the application and enforce- 
ment of the Federal laws, or out of treaties 
concluded with foreign powers. Whenever such 
controversies affect only private rights, the reg- 
ular local courts of the States, the Federal Dis- 
trict and Territories shall, at the election of the 
plaintiff, assume jurisdiction. Appeal may be had 
from all judgments of first instance to the next 
higher tribunal of the same court in which the 
case was first heard. Appeal may be taken from 
sentences of second instance to the Supreme Court 
of Justice, which appeal shall be prepared, sub- 
mitted and prosecuted, in accordance with the pro- 
cedure provided by law. 

II. All cases pertaining to admiralty law. 

III. All cases to which the Federation may be 
a party. 

IV. All cases arising between two or more 
States, or between any State and the Federal 
Grovernment, as well as those arising between the 
courts of the Federal District and those of the 
Federal Government or of a State. 

V. All cases arising between a State and one 
or more citizens of another State. 

VI. All cases concerning diplomatic agents and 
consuls. 

Art. 105. The Supreme Court of Justice shall 
have exclusive jurisdiction in all controversies 
arising between two or more States, between the 
powers of government of any State as to the con- 



APPENDIX B 231 

stitutionality of their acts, or between one or more 
States and the Federal Government, and in all 
cases to which the Federal Government may be a 
party. 

Art. 106. The Supreme Court of Justice shall 
likewise have exclusive jurisdiction to determine 
all questions of jurisdiction between the Federal 
tribunals, between these and those of the States, 
or between those of one State and those of another. 

Art. 107. All controversies mentioned in 
Article 103 shall be prosecuted by the injured 
party in accordance with the judicial forms and 
procedure which the law shall establish, subject 
to the following conditions : 

I. The judgment shall always be so drawn as 
to affect exclusively private individuals, and shall 
confine itself to affording them redress in the 
special case to which the complaint refers; but, 
it shall make no general statement as to the law 
or the act that may have formed the basis for 
the complaint. 

II. In civil or penal suits, excepting those men- 
tioned in Clause IX hereof, the writ of ''amparo" 
shall issue only against final judgments when no 
other ordinary recourse is available by which these 
judgments may be modified or amended, if the 
violation of the law shall have occurred in the 
judgment, or if, although committed during the 
course of the trial, objection was duly noted and 



APPENDIX B 

protest entered against the denial of reparation, 
and provided further that if committed in first 
instance it shall have been invoked in second in- 
stance as a violation of the law. 

Notwithstanding the foregoing provision, the 
Supreme Court may in penal cases waive any 
defects in the petition when there has been a mani- 
fest violation of the law which has left the peti- 
tioner without recourse, or when he has been tried 
by a law not strictly applicable to the case, pro- 
vided failure to take advantage of this violation 
has been merely an oversight. 

III. In civil or penal suits the writ of 
"amparo" shall issue only if substantial portions 
of the rules of procedure have been violated, and 
provided further that the said violation shall de- 
prive the petitioner of means of defense. 

IV. In addition to the case mentioned in the 
foregoing paragraph, the writ of "amparo" shall \ 
issue only on a final judgment in a civil suit, — 1} 
provided the requirements set forth in Clause II ■ 
hereof have been complied with, — when the judg- 
ment shall be contrary to the letter of the law 
applicable to the case or contrary to its legal 
interpretation, when it includes persons, actions, 
defenses, or things which have not been the object 
of the suit, or finally when all these have not been 
included either through omission or express re- 
fusal. 

When the writ of ''amparo'^ is sought against f 
mesne judgments, in accordance with the provi- 



APPENDIX B 233 

sions of the foregoing clause, these rules shall be 
observed, as far as applicable. 

V. In penal suits, the authorities responsible 
for the violation shall stay the execution of final 
judgment against which the writ of ' ' amparo ' ' has 
been sought ; for this purpose the petitioner shall, 
within the period set by law, give notice, under 
oath, to the said authorities of the interposition 
of this recourse, accompanying it with two copies 
of the petition, one of which shall be delivered to 
the opposing party and the other filed. 

VI. The execution of a final judgment in civil 
suits shall only be stayed when the petitioner 
shall give bond to cover damages occasioned 
thereby, unless the other party shall give a 
counter bond (1) to guarantee that the normal 
conditions and relations previously existing be 
restored, and (2) to pay the corresponding dam- 
ages, in the event of the granting of the 
''amparo." In such event the interposition of 
the recourse of ' ' amparo ' ' shall be communicated 
as provided in the foregoing clause. 

VII. If a writ of ''amparo" be sought against 
a final judgment, a certified copy of such portions 
of the record as the petitioner may desire shall 
be requested from the authority responsible for 
the violation; to this there shall be added such 
portions as the other party may desire and a 
clear and succinct statement by the said authority 
of the justification of the act protested ; note shall 
be made of this on the record. 



234 APPENDIX B 

VIII. When a writ of ''amparo" is sought 
against a final judgment, the petition shall be 
brought before the Supreme Court; this petition, 
together with the copy required by Clause VII, 
shall be either presented to the Supreme Court or 
sent through the authority responsible for the 
violation or through the District Court of the cor- 
responding State. The Supreme Court shall ren- 
der judgment without any other formality or 
procedure than the petition, the document pre- 
sented by the other party and that of the Attorney 
General or the Public Attorney he may name in 
his stead, and shall comprise no other legal 
question than that contained in the complaint. 

IX. When the acts of an authority other than 
the judicial are involved or the acts of the 
judiciary exercised outside of the suit or after 
the termination thereof, or acts committed during 
the suit whose execution is of impossible repara- 
tion, or which affect persons not parties to the 
suit, the writ of "amparo" shall be sought before 
the District Court within whose jurisdiction is 
located the place where the act protested was com- 
mitted or attempted; the procedure in this case 
shall be confined to the report of the authority 
and to a hearing, the call for which shall be issued 
in the same order of the court as that calling for 
the report. This hearing shall be held at as early 
a date as possible, the testimony of both parties 
offered, arguments heard which shall not exceed 
one hour for each side, and finally the judgment 



APPENDIX B 235 

which shall be pronounced at the same hearing. 
The judgment of the District Court shall be final, 
if the interested parties do not appeal to the Su- 
preme Court within the period set by law and in 
the manner prescribed by Clause VIII. 

In case of a violation of the guarantees of Arti- 
cles 16, 19 and 20, recourse shall be had through 
the appellate court of the court committing the. 
breach or to the corresponding District Court. An 
appeal against the decision of any of these courts 
may be taken to the Supreme Court. 

If the district judge shall not reside in the same 
locality as the official guilty of the violation, the 
judge before whom the petition of ' ' amparo ' ' shall 
be submitted shall be determined by law; this 
judge shall be authorized to suspend temporarily 
the execution of the act protested, in accordance 
with the terms established by law. 

X. Any official failing to suspend the execution 
of the act protested, when in duty bound to do 
so, or when he admits an insufficient or improper 
bond, shall be turned over to the proper authori- 
ties ; the civil and penal liability of the official shall 
in these cases be a joint liability with the person 
offering the bond and his surety. 

XL If after the granting of an '' amparo," 
the guilty official shall persist in the act or acts 
against which the petition of ' ' amparo ' ' was filed, 
or shall seek to render of no effect the judgment 
of the Federal authority, he shall be forthwith 



236 APPENDIX B 

removed from office and turned over for trial to 
the corresponding district court. 

XII. Wardens and jailers who fail to receive 
a duly certified copy of the formal order of com- 
mitment within the seventy-two hours granted by 
Article 19, reckoned from the time the accused is 
placed at the disposal of the court, shall bring this 
fact to the attention of the court, immediately 
upon expiration of this period ; and if the proper 
order be not received within the next three hours 
the accused shall be set at liberty. 

Any official who shall violate this provision and 
the article referred to in the foregoing paragraph 
shall be immediately turned over to the proper 
authorities. Any official or agent thereof who, 
after an arrest has been made, shall fail to place 
the accused at the disposition of the court within 
the next twenty-four hours shall himself be turned 
over to the proper authority. 

If the detention be effected outside the locality 
in which the court is situated, there shall be added 
to the period mentioned in the preceding sentence 
the time necessary to travel from the said locality 
to that where the detention took place. 

Title IV 
Of the Responsibility of Officials 

Art. 108. Senators and Eepresentatives of 
Congress, Justices of the Supreme Court, Secre- 
taries of Executive Departments and the Attorney 



APPENDIX B 

General of the Republic shall be liable for all com- 
mon offenses committed during their term of office, 
as well as for all official offenses or acts of com- 
mission or omission in which they may incur in 
the discharge of their duties. 

Governors of States and members of State 
Legislatures shall be liable for violation of the 
Constitution and the Federal Laws. 

The President of the Republic may only be im- 
peached during his term of office for high treason 
and common offenses of a serious character. 

Art. 109. If the offense belongs to the common 
order the House of Representatives, acting as a 
grand jury, shall determine by a majority vote 
of its total membership whether there is or is not 
any ground for proceeding against the accused. 

If the finding be favorable to the accused, no 
further action shall be taken; but such finding 
shall not be a bar to the prosecution of the charge 
so soon as the constitutional privilege shall cease, 
since the finding of the House does not in any 
way determine the merits of the charge. 

If the finding be adverse, the accused shall ipso 
facto be removed from office and be placed at the 
disposition of the ordinary courts of justice, ex- 
cept in the case of the President of the Republic, 
who may only be impeached before the Senate, as 
in the case of an official offense. 

Art. 110. No constitutional privilege shall be 
extended to any high Federal functionary when 



238 APPENDIX B 

tried for official offenses, misdemeanors, or omis- 
sions committed by him in the discharge of any 
public function or commission, during the time in 
which, according to law, the privilege is enjoyed. 
This provision shall be applicable to cases of com- 
mon offenses committed under the same circum- 
stances. In order that the proceedings may be 
instituted when the functionary returns to the 
exercise of his own functions, the rules set forth 
in Article 104 of the Constitution shall be observed. 

Art. 111. The Senate acting as a grand jury 
shall try all cases of impeachment : but it may not 
institute such proceedings without a previous ac- 
cusation brought by the House of Eepresentatives. 

If the Senate should, after hearing the accused 
and conducting such proceedings as it may deem 
advisable, determine by a majority vote of two- 
thirds of its total membership that the accused 
is guilty, the latter shall be forthwith removed 
from office by virtue of such decision, or be dis- 
qualified from holding any other office for such 
time as the law may determine. 

Wlien the same offense is punishable with an 
additional penalty, the accused shall be placed at 
the disposition of the regular authorities who shall 
judge and sentence him in accordance with the 
law. 

In all cases embraced by this article and in those 
included by the preceding both the decisions of 



APPENDIX B 239 

the Grand Jury and the findings of the House of 
Kepresentatives shall be final. 

Any person shall have the right to denounce be- 
fore the House of Eepresentatives offenses of a 
common order or of an official character committed 
by high Federal functionaries ; and whenever the 
said House of Representatives shall determine 
that there exist good grounds for impeachment 
proceedings before the Senate, it shall name a 
committee from among its own members to sus- 
tain the charges brought. 

The Congress shall as soon as possible enact a 
law as to the responsibility of all Federal officials 
and employees which shall fix as official offenses 
all acts, of commission or omission, which may 
prejudice the public interest and efficient adminis- 
tration, even though such acts may not heretofore 
have been considered offenses. These officials 
shall be tried by a jury in the same manner as 
provided for trials by jury in Article 20. 

Art. 112. No pardon shall be granted the 
offender in cases of impeachment. 

Art. 113. The responsibility for official 
breaches and offenses may only be enforced during 
such time as the functionary shall remain in office 
and for one year thereafter. 

Art. 114. In civil cases no privilege or immu- 
nity in favor of any public functionary shall be 
recognized. 



240 APPENDIX B 

Title V 

Of the States of the Federation 

Art. 115. The States shall adopt for their in- 
ternal government the popular, representative, 
republican form of government; they shall have 
as the basis of their territorial division and politi- 
cal and administrative organization the free mu- 
nicipality, in accordance with the following pro- 
visions : 

I. Each municipality shall be administered by 
a town council chosen by direct vote of the people, 
and no authority shall intervene between the mu- 
nicipality and the State Government. 

II. The municipalities shall freely administer 
their own revenues which shall be derived from the 
taxes fixed by the State Legislatures which shall 
at all times be sufficient to meet their needs. 

III. The municipalities shall be regarded as 
enjoying corporate existence for all legal pur- 
poses. 

The Federal Executive and the State Governors 
shall have command over all public forces of the 
municipalities wherein they may permanently or 
temporarily reside. 

Constitutional State Governors shall not be re- 
elected, nor shall their term of office exceed four 
years. 

The prohibitions of Article 83 are applicable to 
substitute or ad interim governors. 



APPENDIX B 241 

The number of Eepresentatives in the State 
Legislatures shall be in proportion to the inhabi- 
tants of each State, but in no case shall the number 
of representatives in any State Legislature be less 
than fifteen. 

Each electoral district of the States shall choose 
a Representative and an alternate to the State 
Legislature. 

Every State Governor shall be a Mexican citizen 
by birth and a native thereof, or resident therein 
not less than five years 'immediately prior to the 
day of election. 

Art. 116. The States shall have the power to 
fix among themselves, by friendly agreements, 
their respective boundaries ; but these agreements 
shall not be carried into effect without the ap- 
proval of the Congress. 

Art. 117. No State shall— 
L Enter into alliances, treaties or coalitions 
with another State or with foreign powers. 

II. Grant letters of marque or reprisal. 

III. Coin money, issue paper money, stamps 
or stamped paper. 

IV. Levy taxes on persons or property passing 
through its territory. 

V. Prohibit or tax, directly or indirectly, the 
entry into its territory, or the withdrawal there- 
from, of any merchandise, foreign or domestic. 

VI. Burden the circulation or consumption of 



APPENDIX B 

domestic or foreign merchaiidise with taxes or 
duties to be collected by local custom houses or 
subject to inspection the said merchandise or re- 
quire it to be accompanied by documents. 

VII. Enact or maintain in force laws or fiscal 
i:'egulations discriminating, by taxation or other- 
wise, between merchandise, foreign or domestic, 
on account of its origin, whether this discrimina- 
tion be established with regard to similar local 
products or to similar products of foreign origin. 

Art. 118. No State shall, without the consent 
of the Congress : 

I. Estabhsh tonnage dues or other port 
charges, or impose taxes or other duties upon im- 
ports or exports. 

II. Keep at any time permanent troops or ves- 
sels of war. 

Art. 119. Every State shall be bound to deliver 
without delay to the demanding authorities the 
fugitives from justice from other States or from 
foreign nations. 

In such cases the writ of the court granting the 
extradition shall operate as a sufficient warrant 
for the detention of the accused for one month, 
in the case of extradition from one State to 
another, and for two months in the case of inter- 
national extradition. 

Art. 120. The State Governors are bound to 
publish and enforce the Federal laws. 



APPENDIX B 243 

Art. 121. Full faith and credit shall be given 
in each State of the Federation to the public acts, 
records and judicial proceedings of all the other 
States. The Congress shall by general laws pre- 
scribe the manner of proving the said acts, records 
and proceedings and the effect thereof. 

I. The laws of a State shall only be binding 
within its own confines, and shall therefore have 
no extra-territorial force. 

II. Movable and immovable property shall be 
governed by the lex sitae. 

III. Judgments of a State court as to property 
and property rights situated in another State shall 
only be binding when expressly so provided by 
the law of the latter State. 

Judgments relating to personal rights shall only 
be binding in another State provided the person 
shall have expressly, or impliedly by reason of 
domicile, submitted to the jurisdiction of the court 
rendering such judgment, and provided further 
that personal service shall have been secured. 

IV. All acts of civil status performed in ac- 
cordance with the laws of one State shall be bind- 
ing in all other States. 

V. All professional licenses issued by the au- 
thorities of one State in accordance with its laws 
shall be valid in all other States. 

Art. 122. The Powers of the Union are bound 
to protect the States against all invasion or exter- 
nal violence. In case of insurrection or internal 



244 APPENDIX B 

disturbance they shall give them the same protec- 
tion, provided the Legislature of the State, or the 
Executive thereof if the Legislature is not in ses- 
sion, shall so request. 

Title VI 

Of Labor and Social Welfare 

Art. 123. The Congress and the State Legisla- 
tures shall make laws relative to labor with due 
regard for the needs of each region of the Repub- 
lic, and in conformity with the following prin- 
ciples, and these principles and laws shall govern 
the labor of skilled and unskilled workmen, em- 
ployees, domestic servants and artisans, and in 
general every contract of labor. 

I. Eight hours shall be the maximum limit of 
a day's work. 

II. The maximum limit of night work shall be 
seven hours. Unhealthy and dangerous occupa- 
tions are forbidden to all women and to children 
under sixteen years of age. Night work in fac- 
tories is likewise forbidden to women and to 
children under sixteen years of age ; nor shall they 
be employed in commercial establishments after 
ten o 'clock at night. 

III. The maximum limit of a day's work for 
children over twelve and under sixteen years of 
age shall be six hours. The work of children under 
twelve years of age shall not be made the subject 
of a contract. 



APPENDIX B 245 

IV. Every workman shall enjoy at least one 
day's rest for every six days' work. 

V. Women shall not perform any physical 
work requiring considerable physical effort during 
the three months immediately preceding parturi- 
tion ; during the month following parturition they 
shall necessarily enjoy a period of rest and shall 
receive their salaries or wages in full and retain 
their employment and the rights they may have 
acquired under their contracts. During the period 
of lactation they shall enjoy two extraordinary 
daily periods of rest of one-half hour each, in 
order to nurse their children. 

VI. The minimum wage to be received by a 
workman shall be that considered sufficient, ac- 
cording to the conditions prevailing in the respec- 
tive region of the country, to satisfy the normal 
needs of the life of the workman, his education 
and his lawful pleasures, considering him as the 
head of a family. In all agricultural, conamercial, 
manufacturing or mining enterprises the workmen 
shall have the right to participate in the profits 
in the manner fixed in Clause IX of this article. 

VII. The same compensation shall be paid for 
the same work, without regard to sex or nation- 
ality. 

VIII. The minimum wage shall be exempt from 
attachment, set-off or discount. 

IX. The determination of the minimum wage 
and of the rate of profit-sharing described in 
Clause VI shall be made by special commissions to 



^46 APPENDIX B 

be appointed in each municipality and to be subor-. 
dinated to the Central Board of Conciliation to 
be established in each State. 

X. All wages shall be paid in legal cnrrency 
and shall not be paid in merchandise, orders, 
counters or any other representative token with 
which it is sought to substitute money. 

XI. When owing to special circumstances it 
becomes necessary to increase the working hours, 
there shall be paid as wages for the overtime one 
hundred per cent more than those fixed for reg- 
ular time. In no case shall the overtime exceed 
three hours nor continue for more than three 
consecutive days ; and no women of whatever age 
nor boys under sixteen years of age may engage 
in overtime work. 

XII. In every agricultural, industrial, mining 
or other class of work employers are bound to 
furnish their workmen comfortable and sanitary 
dwelling-places, for which they may charge rents 
not exceeding one-half of one per cent per month 
of the assessed value of the properties. (See Art. 
27, Clause VII, second paragraph.) They shall 
likewise establish schools, dispensaries and other 
services necessary to the community. If the fac- 
tories are located within inhabited places and more 
than one hundred persons are employed therein, 
the first of the above-mentioned conditions shall 
be complied with. 

XIII. Furthermore, there shall be set aside in 
these labor centers, whenever their population 



APPENDIX B 247 

exceeds two hundred inhabitants, a space of land 
not less than five thousand square meters for the 
establishment of public markets, and the construc- 
tion of buildings designed for municipal services 
and places of amusement. No saloons nor gam- 
bling houses shall be permitted in such labor 
centers. 

XIV. Employers shall be liable for labor ac- 
cidents and occupational diseases arising from 
work; therefore, employers shall pay the proper 
indemnity, according to whether death or merely 
temporary or permanent disability has ensued, in 
accordance with the provisions of law. This 
liability shall remain in force even though the 
employer contract for the work through an agent. 

XV. Employers shall be bound to observe in 
the installation of their establishments all the pro- 
visions of law regarding hygiene and sanitation 
and to adopt adequate measures to prevent acci- 
dents due to the use of machinery, tools and work- 
ing materials, as well as to organize work in such 
a manner as to assure the greatest guarantees 
possible for the health and lives of workmen com- 
patible with the nature of the work, under penal- 
ties which the law shall determine. 

XVI. Workmen and employers shall have the 
right to unite for the defense of their respective 
interests, by forming syndicates, unions, etc. 

XVII. The law shall recognize the right of 
workmen and employers to strike and to lockout. 

XVIII. Strikes shall be lawful when by the 



248 APPENDIX B 

employment of peaceful means they shall aim to 
bring about a balance between the various factors 
of production, and to harmonize the rights of 
capital and labor. In the case of public services, 
the workmen shall be obliged to give notice ten 
days in advance to the Board of Conciliation and 
Arbitration of the date set for the suspension of 
work. Strikes shall only be considered unlawful 
when the majority of the strikers shall resort to 
acts of violence against persons or property, or in 
case of war when the strikers belong to establish- 
ments and services dependent on the government. 
Employees of military manufacturing establish- 
ments of the Federal Government shall not be in- 
cluded in the provisions of this clause, inasmuch 
as they are a dependency of the national army. 

XIX. Lockouts shall only be lawful when the 
excess of production shall render it necessary to 
shut down in order to maintain prices reasonably 
above the cost of production, subject to the ap- 
proval of the Board of Conciliation and Arbitra- 
tion. 

XX. Differences or disputes between capital 
and labor shall be submitted for settlement to a 
board of conciliation and arbitration to consist of 
an equal number of representatives of the work- 
men and of the employers and of one representa- 
tive of the Government. 

XXI. If the employer shall refuse to submit 
his differences to arbitration or to accept the 
award rendered by the Board, the labor contract 



APPENDIX B 249 

shall be considered as terminated, and the em- 
ployer shall be bound to indemnify the workman 
by the payment to him of three months ' wages, in 
addition to the liability which he may have in- 
curred by reason of the dispute. If the workman 
reject the award, the contract will be held to have 
terminated. 

XXII. An employer who discharges a work- 
man without proper cause or for having joined a 
union or syndicate or for having taken part in a 
lawful strike shall be bound, at the option of the 
workman, either to perform the contract or to 
indemnify him by the payment of three months' 
wages. He shall incur the same liability if the 
workman shall leave his service on account of the 
lack of good faith on the part of the employer or 
of maltreatment either as to his own person or 
that of his wife, parents, children or brothers or 
sisters. The employer cannot evade this liability 
when the maltreatment is inflicted by subordinates 
or agents acting with his consent or knowledge. 

XXIII. Claims of worlnnen for salaries or 
wages accrued during the past year and other in- 
demnity claims shall be preferred over any other 
claims, in cases of bankruptcy or composition. 

XXIV. Debts contracted by workmen in favor 
of their employers or their employers ' associates, 
subordinates or agents, may only be charged 
against the workmen themselves and in no case 
and for no reason collected from the members of 
his family. Nor shall such debts be paid by the 



250 APPENDIX B 

taking of more than the entire wages of the work- 
man for any one month. 

XXV. No fee shall be charged for finding work 
for workmen by municipal offices, employment 
bureaus or other public or private agencies. 

XXVI. Every contract of labor between a 
Mexican citizen and a foreign principal shall be 
legalized before the competent municipal author- 
ity and viseed by the consul of the nation to which 
the workman is undertaking to go, on the under- 
standing that, in addition to the usual clauses, 
special and clear provisions shall be inserted for 
the payment by the foreign principal making the 
contract of the cost to the laborer of repatriation. 

XXVII. The following stipulations shall be 
null and void and shall not bind the contracting 
parties, even though embodied in the contract : 

(a) Stipulations providing for inhuman day's 
work on account of its notorious excessiveness, in 
view of the nature of the work. 

(b) Stipulations providing for a wage rate 
which in the judgment of the Board of Concilia- 
tion and Arbitration is not remunerative. 

(c) Stipulations providing for a term of more 
than one week before the payment of wages. 

(d) Stipulations providing for the assigning 
of places of amusement, eating places, cafes, tav- 
erns, saloons or shops for the payment of wages, 
when employees of such establishments are not 
involved. 

(e) Stipulations involving a direct or indirect 



APPENDIX B 251 

obligation to purchase articles of consumption in 
specified shops or places. 

(f) Stipulations permitting the retention of 
wages by way of fines. 

(g) Stipulations constituting a waiver on the 
part of the workman of the indemnities to which 
he may become entitled by reason of labor acci- 
dents or occupational diseases, damages for breach 
of contract, or for discharge from work. 

(h) All other stipulations implying the waiver 
of any right vested in the workman by labor laws. 

XXVIII. The law shall decide what property 
constitutes the family patrimony. These goods 
shall be inalienable and shall not be mortgaged, 
nor attached, and may be bequeathed with simpli- 
fied formalities in the succession proceedings. 

XXIX. Institutions of popular insurance* es- 
tablished for old age, sickness, life, unemployment, 
accident and others of a similar character, are 
considered of social utility ; the Federal and State 
Governments shall therefore encourage the orga- 
nization of institutions of this character in order 
to instill and inculcate popular habits of thrift. 

XXX. Cooperative associations for the con- 
struction of cheap and sanitary dwelling houses 
for workmen shall likewise be considered of social 
utility whenever these properties are designed to 

* In the desire to adhere as closely as possible to the original, 
the term "popular insurance" has been used. It would seem, 
however, that in making use of the expression " Seguros Popu- 
lares," it was intended to convey the full connotation of the term 
"Social Insurance." (See "Social Insurance," Seager, 1910.) 



252 APPENDIX B 

be acquired in ownership by the workmen within 
specified periods. 

Title VII 
Of General Provisions 

Art. 124. All powers not expressly vested by 
this Constitution in the Federal authorities are 
understood to be reserved to the States. 

Art. 125. No person shall hold at the same 
time two Federal offices or one Federal and one 
State elective office; if elected to two, he shall 
choose between them. 

Art. 126. No payment shall be made which is 
not included in the Budget or authorized by a law 
subsequent to the same. 

Art. 127. The President of the Eepublic, the 
Justices of the Supreme Court, Representatives 
and Senators and other public officials of the Fed- 
eration who are chosen by popular election shall 
receive a compensation for their services, which 
shall be paid by the Federal Treasury and deter- 
mined by law. This compensation may not be 
waived, and any law increasing or decreasing it 
shall have no effect during the period for which the 
functionary holds office. 

Art. 128. Every public official, without excep- 
tion, shall, before entering on the discharge of his 



APPENDIX B 253 

duties, make an afSrmation to maintain this con- 
stitution and the laws arising thereunder. 

Art. 129. In time of peace no military authori- 
ties shall exercise other functions than those bear- 
ing direct relation to military discipline. No per- 
manent military posts shall be established other 
than in castles, forts and arsenals depending di- 
rectly upon the Federal Government, or in camps, 
barracks, or depots, established outside of 
inhabited places for the stationing of troops. 

Art. 130. The Federal authorities shall have 
power to exercise in matters of religious worship 
and outward ecclesiastical forms such intervention 
as by law authorized. All other officials shall act 
as auxiliaries to the Federal authorities. 

The Congress shall not enact any law establish- 
ing or forbidding any religion whatsoever. 

Marriage is a civil contract. Marriage and all 
other acts relating to the civil status of individuals 
shall appertain to the exclusive jurisdiction of the 
civil authorities in the manner and form by law 
provided, and they shall have the force and valid- 
ity given them by said laws. 

A simple promise to tell the truth and to com- 
ply with obligations contracted shall subject the 
promisor, in the event of a breach, to the penalties 
established therefor by law. 

The law recognizes no juridicial personality in 
the religious institutions known as churches. 



254 APPENDIX B 

Ministers of religious creeds shall be considered 
as persons exercising a profession, and shall be 
directly subject to the laws enacted on the matter. 

The State legislatures shall have the exclusive 
power of determining the maximum number of 
ministers of religious creeds, according to the 
needs of each locality. Only a Mexican by birth 
may be a minister of any religious creed in Mexico. 

No ministers of religious creeds shall, either in 
public or private meetings, or in acts of worship 
or religious propaganda, criticise the fundamental 
laws of the country, the authorities in particular 
or the Government in general ; they shall have no 
vote, nor be eligible to office, nor shall they be 
entitled to assemble for political purposes. 

Before dedicating new temples of worship fo*- 
public use, permission shall be obtained from the 
Department of the Interior (Gobernacion) ; th^ 
opinion of the Governor of the respective State 
shall be previously heard on the subject. Every 
place of worship shall have a person charged with 
its care and maintenance, who shall be legally 
responsible for the faithful performance of the 
laws on religious observances within the said place 
of worship, and for all the objects used for pur- 
poses of worship. 

The caretaker of each place of public worship, 
together with ten citizens of the place, shall 
promptly advise the municipal authorities as to 
the person charged with the care of the said place 
of worship. The outgoing minister shall in every 



APPENDIX B 255 

instance give notice of any change, for which pur- 
pose he shall be accompanied by the incoming 
minister and ten other citizens of the place. The 
municipal authorities, under penalty of dismissal 
and fine, not exceeding 1,000 pesos for each breach, 
shall be responsible for the exact performance of 
this provision; they shall keep a register of the 
places of worship and another of the caretakers 
thereof, subject to the same penalty as above pro- 
vided. The municipal authorities shall likewise 
give notice to the Department of the Interior 
through the State Governor, of any permission 
to open to the public use a new place of worship,, 
as well as of any change in the caretakers. Gifts 
of personalty may be received in the interior of 
places of public worship. 

Under no conditions shall studies carried on in 
institutions devoted to the professional training 
of ministers of religious creeds be given credit or 
granted any other dispensation of privilege which 
shall have for its purpose the accrediting of the 
said studies in official institutions. Any authority 
violating this provision shall be punished crimi- 
nally, and all such dispensation of privilege be null 
and void, and shall invalidate wholly and entirely 
the professional degree toward the obtaining of 
which the infraction of this provision may in any 
way have contributed. '' 

No periodical publication which either by reason 
of its program, its title or merely by its gen- 
eral tendencies, is of a religious character, shall 



256 APPENDIX B 

comment upon any political affairs of the nation, 
nor publish any information regarding the acts 
of the authorities of the country or of private in- 
dividuals, in so far as the latter have to do with 
public affairs. 

Every kind of political association whose name 
shall bear any word or any indication relating 
to any religious belief is hereby strictly forbidden. 
No assemblies of any political character shall be 
held within places of public worship. 

No minister of any religious creed may inherit, 
either on his own behalf or by means of a trustee 
or otherwise, any real property occupied by any 
association of religious propaganda or religious 
or charitable purposes. Ministers of religious 
creeds are incapable legally of inheriting by will 
from ministers of the same religious creed or from 
any private individual to whom they are not re- 
lated by blood within the fourth degree. 

All real and personal property pertaining to 
the clergy or to religious institutions shall be gov- 
erned, in so far as their acquisition by private 
parties is concerned, in conformity with Article 
27 of this Constitution. 

No trial by jury shall ever be granted for the 
infraction of any of the preceding provisions. 

Art. 131. The Federal Government shall have 
exclusive power to levy duties on merchandise 
imported, exported or passing in transit through 
the national territory, as well as to regulate at 



APPENDIX B 25T 

all times, and if necessary to forbid for the sake 
of public safety or for police reasons, the circula- 
tion in the interior of the Republic of all kinds of 
goods, regardless of their origin ; but the Federal 
Government shall have no power to establish or 
decree in the Federal District and Territories the 
taxes and laws to which Clauses VI and VII of 
Article 117 refer. 

Art. 132. All forts, barracks, warehouses, and 
other real property, destined by the Federal Gov- 
ernment for public service or common use, shall 
be under the jurisdiction of the Federal authori- 
ties, in accordance with the law which the Con- 
gress shall issue on the subject; any of these 
establishments which may subsequently be ac- 
quired within the territory of any State shall like- 
wise be subject to Federal jurisdiction, provided 
consent thereto shall have been obtained from the 
respective State legislature. 

Art. 133. This Constitution and the laws of 
the United States of Mexico which shall be made 
in pursuance hereof and all treaties made or which 
shall be made under the authority of the President 
of the Republic, with the approval of the Congress, 
shall be the supreme law of the land. And the 
judges in every State shall be bound by this Con- 
stitution and by these laws and treaties, anything 
in the Constitution or laws of any State to the 
contrary notwithstanding. 



^58 APPENDIX B 

Art. 134. Bids shall be called for on all con- 
tracts wMch the Government may have occasion 
to enter into for the execution of any public works ; 
these bids shall be submitted under seal and shall 
only be opened publicly. 

Title VIII 
Of the Amendments to the Constitution 

Art. 135. The present Constitution may be 
added to or amended. No amendment or addi- 
tion shaU become part of the Constitution until 
agreed to by the Congress of the Union by a 
two-thirds vote of the members present and ap- 
proved by a majority of the State legislatures. 
The Congress shall count the votes of the legis- 
latures and make the declaration that the amend- 
ments or additions have been adopted. 

Title IX 
Of the Inviolability of the Constitution 

Art. 136. This Constitution shall not lose its 
force and vigor, even though its observance be 
interrupted by rebellion. In case that through 
any public disturbance a Government contrary to 
the principles which it sanctions be established, 
its force shall be restored so soon as the people 
shall regain their liberty, and those who have par- 
ticipated in the Government emanating from the 



APPENDIX B 259 

rebellion or have cooperated with it shall be tried 
in accordance with its provisions and with the 
laws arising under it. 



TKANSITOEY AETICIiES 

Article 1. This Constitution shall be published 
at once and a solemn affirmation made to defend 
and enforce it throughout the Republic; but its 
provisions, except those relating to the election 
of the supreme powers, Federal and State, shall 
not go into effect until the first day of May, 1917, 
at which time the Constitutional Congress shall 
be solemnly convened and the oath of office taken 
by the citizen chosen at the forthcoming elections 
to discharge the duties of President of the Repub- 
lic. 

The provisions of Clause V of Article 82 shall 
not be applicable in the elections to be called in 
[accordance with Article 2 of the Transitory Arti- 
icles, nor shall active service in the army act as a 
disqualification for the office of representative or 
benator, provided the candidate shall not have 
active command of troops in the respective elec- 
toral district. 

Nor shall the secretaries nor assistant secre- 
taries of executive departments be disqualified 
from election to the next Federal Congress, pro- 
vided they shall definitively resign from office on 
or before the day on which the respective call is 
issued. 



260 APPENDIX B 

Art. 2. The person charged with the executive 
power of the Nation shall immediately, upon the 
publication of this Constitution, call for elections 
to fill the Federal offices; he shall see that these 
elections be held so that Congress may be consti- 
tuted within a reasonable time, in order that it 
may count the votes cast in the presidential elec- 
tions and make known the name of the person who 
has been elected President of the Republic; this 
shall be done in order that the provisions of the 
foregoing article may be complied with. 

Art. 3. The next constitutional term shall be 
computed, in the case of Senators and Representa- 
tives, from the first of September last, and in the 
case of the President of the Republic, from the 
first of December, 1916. 

Art. 4. Senators who in the coming election 
shall be classified as ''even" shall serve only two 
years, in order that the Senate may be renewed 
by half every two years. 

Art. 5. The Congress shall in the month of 
May next choose the Justices of the Supreme 
Court in order that this tribunal may be consti- 
tuted on the first day of June, 1917. 

In these elections, Article 96 shall not govern 
in so far as the candidates proposed by the State 
Legislatures are concerned ; but those chosen shall 
be designated for the first term of two years pre- 
scribed by Article 94. 

Art. 6. The Congress shall meet in extraordi- 
nary session on the fifteenth day of April, 1917, 



APPENDIX B 261 

to act as an electoral college, for the computing 
of the ballots and the determination of the election 
of President of the Republic, at which time it shall 
make known the results; it shall likewise enact 
the organic law of the Circuit and District Courts, 
the organic law of the Tribunals of the Federal 
District and Territories, in order that the Supreme 
Court of Justice may immediately appoint the In- 
ferior and Superior District and Circuit Judges; 
at the same session the Congress shall choose the 
Superior Judges and Judges of First Instance of 
the Federal District and Territories, and shall 
also enact all laws submitted by the Executive. 
The Circuit and District Judges and the Superior 
and Inferior Judges of the Federal District and 
Territories shall take office not later than the first 
day of July, 1917, at which time such as shall have 
been temporarily appointed by the person now 
charged with the executive power of the nation 
shall cease to act. 

Art. 7. For this occasion only, the votes for 
the office of Senator shall be counted by the Board 
of the First Electoral District of each State or of 
the Federal District which shall be instituted for 
the counting of the votes of Representatives. This 
Board shall issue the respective credentials to the 
Senators-elect. 

Art. 8. The Supreme Court shall decide all 
pending petitions of *'amparo," in accordance 
with the laws at present in force. 

Art. 9. The First Chief of the Constitutionalist 



262 APPENDIX B 

Army, charged with the executive power of the 
Nation, is hereby authorized to issue the electoral 
law according to which, on this occasion, the elec- 
tions to fill the various Federal offices shall he 
held. 

Art. 10. All persons who shall have taken part 
m the Government emanating from the rebellion 
against the legitimate government of the Eepublic, 
or who may have given aid to the said rebellion 
and later taken up arms or held any office or com- 
mission of the factions which have opposed the 
constitutionalist government, shall be tried in ac- 
cordance with the laws at present in force, unless 
they shall have been previously pardoned by the 
said constitutionalist government. 

Art. 11. Until such time as the Congress of the 
Union and the State Legislatures shall legislate 
on the agrarian and labor problems, the bases 
established by this Constitution for the said laws 
shall be put into force throughout the Republic. 

Art. 12. All Mexicans who shall have fought in 
the ranks of the constitutionalist army and their 
children and ^dows and all other persons who 
shall have rendered service to the cause of the 
revolution, or to public instruction, shall be pre- 
ferred in the acquisition of lots to which Article 
27 refers, and shall be entitled to such rebates as 
the law shall determine. 

Art. 13. All debts contracted by working men 
on account of work up to the date of this Consti- 
tution with masters, their subordinates and agents. 



APPENDIX B 263 

are hereby declared wholly and entirely dis- 
charged. 

Art. 14. The Departments of Justice and of 
Public Instruction and Fine Arts are hereby abol- 
ished. 

Art. 15. The citizen at present charged with 
the executive power is hereby authorized to issue 
the law of civil responsibility applicable to all 
promoters, accomplices and abettors of the 
offenses committed against the constitutional 
order in the month of February, 1913, and against 
the Constitutionalist Government. 

Art. 16. The Constitutional Congress in the 
regular period of sessions, to begin on the first day 
of September of the present year, shall issue all 
the organic laws of the Constitution which may 
not have been already issued in the extraordinary 
session to which Transitory Article number 6 
refers; and it shall give preference to the laws 
relating to personal guarantees and to Articles 
30, 32, 33, 35, 36, 38, 107 and the latter part of 
Article 111 of this Constitution. 

Signed at Queretaro de Arteaga, January 31, 
1917. 



APPENDIX C 

A STATEMENT KEGARDING THE MEXICAN RAILWAYS 

The Mexican News Bureau in Washington re- 
cently sent to the newspapers of the United States 
propaganda notes attempting to disprove state- 
ments made in articles of mine which appeared in 
the Saturday Evening Post. 

Copies of these ''News Notes" follow: 

NEWS NOTES PROM MEXICAN NEWS BUREAU, 613 RIGGS 

BLDG., WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 11, 

1917 

Railroad Repairs and Recognition 

Those who are acquainted with the condition in 
Mexico and who have followed the steady march 
of events in that country during the past six or 
seven years, have been surprised at some recent 
statements appearing in the Saturday Evening 
Post of October 6, by Carl W. Ackerman, regard- 
ing that country. One is to the effect that : ' ' For 
seven years practically no repairs have been made 
on any of the railway lines — either those owned 
by the Government or those owned abroad and 
operated by the authorities," 

264 



APPENDIX C 265 

As a matter of fact, nothing could be further 
from the truth than this assertion. Repairs to 
all the lines in the Eepublic have been prosecuted 
diligently and zealously even during the worst 
periods of the revolution, and it has been unani- 
mously conceded by foreigners who have travelled 
over the various lines, government as well as pri- 
vate ones, that their condition compares most 
favourably with lines in the United States — is, 
indeed, well up to the standard in such matters. 
Bridges have been rebuilt, tracks relaid and re- 
ballasted, and except for the presence of an occa- 
sional pile of bent and twisted rails or of iron 
work from burned cars by the side of the track, 
one might well believe he were travelling over one 
of the best roads in the United States. It is true, 
many stations were burned during the troubles, 
but as a rule these were of the poorer class. The 
fine edifices at Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Hermo- 
sillo, Saltillo, San Luis Potosi, Queretaro, Guada- 
lajara, Colima, Vera Cruz, Orizaba, Cordoba, 
Puebla, one (a stone structure) at Monterey, those 
in Mexico City, as well as many others, in fact 
all the best ones in the Republic, were not injured 
in the least. Most of those that were damaged 
have been repaired and constant work in this di- 
rection is being prosecuted. All these facts are 
well known to travellers in the Republic and 
should have been known to the Post's correspon- 
dent, as they are apparent to all. 

So, too, with the rolling stock. The various rail- 



me APPENDIX C 

road repair shops in all portions of the Republic 
have been busy for over two years in repairing 
engines, freight and passenger cars, and the 
amount of work thus accomplished has been re- 
markable considering the conditions. The iron 
work of hundreds if not thousands of cars has 
been utilised in the construction of new ones and 
the process is going steadily forward. Loco- 
motives that had been wrecked or temporarily 
disabled have been put in commission by the score, 
and the repair shops at all the railway centres are 
kept fully occupied with the work, as they have 
been continuously since the restoration of peace 
and as rapidly as the lines were again controlled 
by the Government. 

The foregoing are well }?:nown facts easily sus- 
ceptible of demonstration by personal observation, 
yet the Post correspondent has apparently pre- 
ferred to repeat the allegations of antagonists of 
the Government rather than seek proof himself at 
first hand. 

AS TO RECOGNITION 

Fully as surprising is the statement that the 
United States and the Allies have not recognised 
the present government of Mexico as a de jure one, 
and ''that their ambassadors and ministers are 
not at this writing (some time in September from 
all appearances) accredited to the de jure gov- 
ernment. 

The Government of Mexico was recognised by 




ff" 



THE RUINED RAILWAY DEPOT AND FREIGHT CARS AT 
MONTEREY. GENERAL VILLA's OFFERING UPON 
HIS RETREAT FROM THE CITY 




A TYPICAL MEXICAN RAILWAY .TRAIN — FREIGHT, 
PASSENGER AND ARMED GUARD COMBINED 



APPENDIX C 267 

the United States Government as a de jure govern- 
ment in March last and has since that date been 
so regarded. 

NEWS NOTES FEOM MEXICAN NEWS BUREAU, 613 RIGGS 

BLDG., WASHINGTON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 25, 

1917 

Some Facts About Mexican Railways 

Rolling Stock of All Kinds Now Equal to Pre- 

Eevolution Days — Official Statements 

on the Subject. 

An interesting light is thrown upon statements 
recently made in the Saturday Evening Post and 
also in the Mining and Scientific Press of San 
Francisco concerning the condition of the rail- 
ways in Mexico, which are far from the truth as 
will be shown. Great stress is laid by both pub- 
lications upon the alleged wholesale destruction of 
engines and cars during the Revolution and upon 
what is claimed to be a present shortage of roll- 
ing stock. 

The last annual report of the National Railways 
of Mexico, made in 1916, shows the following 
facts : 

In 1913 before there had been any destruction 
of consequence there were 435 passenger coaches 
of broad gauge and 118 of narrow gauge. In 
1916 there were 414 broad gauge and 101 narrow 
gauge — or a loss of but 21 and 17 respectively. 



268 APPENDIX C 

In 1913 there were 16,661 freight cars of broad 
gauge and 1,831 of narrow gauge. In 1916 there 
were 13,222 of broad gauge and 1,396 of narrow 
gauge — a loss of 3,439 of the one and 434 of the 
other. 

In 1913 there were 635 broad gauge locomotives 
and 94 narrow gauge. In 1916 there were 596 of 
the broad gauge and 83 of the narrow — a loss of 
83 and 11 respectively. 

Since the date of this report large additions 
have been made to the rolling stock of all kinds, 
by repair, construction and purchase. Further ad- 
ditions are constantly being made. 

General Agent De Hoyos, who represents the 
Constitutionalist railways in New York, is respon- 
sible for the statement that within the last six 
months there have been purchased 600 freight 
cars, 80 passenger cars and sixty locomotives. 
Three thousand cars are now under repair in the 
company's own shops, which when completed will 
bring the equipment practically to the same point 
as in 1913 — ^in fact, it is larger so far as regards 
locomotives and passenger coaches, and but a 
trifle less in regard to freight cars. 



In replying to these charges one must consider 
the fundamental inaccuracy contained therein, that 
is, that many of the railway lines which the pres- 
ent government are operating do not belong to 
the government at all. The Constitutionalist gov- 



APPENDIX C 269 

ernment ''intervened," or confiscated this prop- 
erty and has been operating it for several years 
without paying the owners and investors one cent 
of dividend. This is very much like the situation 
in Mexico City with regard to the Street Railways. 
Until this summer they were operated as confis- 
cated property by the government, contrary to 
all principles of international law. So when the 
Mexican News Notes speaks about the ''wonder- 
ful" progress which the government is making it 
is necessary for the reader to remember that some 
of these railroad lines belong to private 
individuals, not to the Mexican Government. 

With regard to the statement about work which 
has been done on the railroads I may say that 
President Carranza last summer authorised an 
American railroad expert, a personal friend of his, 
to travel throughout the country and investigate 
the railroad situation. In a confidential report 
this official said that there were 4,000 destroyed 
freight cars throughout the Republic and that be- 
cause of a shortage of materials repairs could not 
be made until the materials were imported from 
the United States. 

In the Monterey railroad yards there are 400 
skeletons of freight cars destroyed during the 
revolution and not one of them has been touched. 

During my stay in Mexico I travelled from 
Laredo, Texas, to Mexico City ; from Mexico City 
to Monterey and from Monterey to Tampico by 
railroad. During the first day's trip our train was 



270 APPENDIX C 

held up five hours because of a destroyed bridge 
which was put together so poorly that four weeks 
later when I returned this way the engineer had 
to stop the train to test the bridge before pulling 
the passenger train across. 

Railroad traffic between Vera Cruz and Mexico 
City is so poor that when I was ready to leave 
the capital for Vera Cruz a member of Mr. Car- 
ranza's cabinet told me to go north to Tampico 
because the line to Vera Cruz was not ''safe." 

The railway line between Tampico and Mexico 
City is not running because the bandits have 
destroyed some sections and because the Mexican 
Government cannot protect the trains. 

The only repair work which is going on, so I 
was informed by American officials and other busi- 
ness men in the Republic, is that under the direc- 
tion of foreign corporations. 

In Monterey the Manager of the large Five 
Million Dollar Steel mills told me that he had to 
rebuild all locomotives and freight cars which his 
corporation used because the Mexican Government 
was not in a position to do so. He showed me 
about twelve freight cars in his shops which were 
being repaired and explained that under his con- 
tract with the government he had exclusive use of 
these cars for two years. I saw in his repair shops 
not less than five locomotives which his workmen 
were repairing. He stated that he had not only to 
rebuild the rolling stock but had to supply engi- 
neers, firemen and brakemen to operate the trains. 



APPENDIX C' 271 

The American Smelting and Refining Company 
owns and operates all tlie trains it uses in Mexico 
for hauling ores and metals. It had to do this be- 
cause the Mexican Government was not in a posi- 
tion to furnish it with the necessary rolling stock 
to take care of its shipping. In Tampico the for- 
eign oil companies are using their own oil cars to 
ship their product in Mexico, and because of the 
bad condition of the Mexican railways, because of 
the delays, etc., the companies are now considering 
the construction of an automobile road from Tam- 
pico to the Texas border, or the laying of a pipe 
line. 

Reports made to the American Consular Office 
at Monterey show that shipments are being held 
up not days but weeks and months because of a 
lack of rolling stock. 

If the Mexican railways are 'indeed well up to 
the standard (of the United States) in such mat- 
ters" it would be interesting to know why the 
Pullman company will not permit any of its cars 
to cross the Rio Grande. It would be interesting, 
too, to know why none of the American railway 
companies will permit either passenger or freight 
cars to go into Mexico. When the revolutions be- 
gan the Pullman company withdrew practically 
every car from the Mexican service. A few were 
"caught" in remote sections of the country and 
these are now being used as private cars by Mex- 
ican officials. 

If conditions in the United States and Mexico 



APPENDIX C 

with regard to the railways are so similar one 
might ask the editor of the Mexican News Notes 
why it is that in Mexico federal troops are sent 
as escorts on all railway lines to protect the pas- 
sengers and the property? If conditions are so 
normal why did the government send a special 
troop train to escort Ambassador Fletcher to the 
capital and why did this special train, with a heavy 
guard, run only during the day? Why, too, are 
most of the trains running between Mexico City 
and Laredo detained at night within some railway 
station? 



APPENDIX D 

THE PEOPOSED AMEKICAN CHAMBEE OF COMMEECE 

When I was in Mexico City the American busi- 
ness men were discussing the advisability of or- 
ganising a Chamber of Commerce. In the Chapter 
on **The Last Spy Offensive" I mentioned what 
a contrast there was between the German intrigue 
in Mexico and the American business methods. I 
am adding the official statement of the American 
committee so that the reader may see what the 
full plans of the Americans are. In so doing I 
wish to add that contrary to the oft repeated 
charges in the United States that all Americans 
_and foreigners in Mexico were exploiting the peo- 
ple I found that those Americans in Mexico to-day 
are the same high type men who are a credit to 
the United States business world. I met during 
my stay in Mexico only one pessimistic American 
merchant who lamented the disappearance of the 
''good old days" when President Diaz permitted 
the foreigners to do about as they pleased. He, 
the Pessimist, advocated intervention in order 
that these ''good days" might return, forgetting 
perhaps that if the United States ever intervened 
in Mexico the methods would not be German. 

273 



274 APPENDIX D 

The American folder runs as follows : 

PROJECT FOR AN 

AMERICAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE 

OF MEXICO 

A committee has decided to submit to American 
residents and American firms established or inter- 
ested in Mexico a proposal for the formation of 
an American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico 
City. 

It is proposed to establish a purely commercial 
and non-political organisation which will foment 
the friendly trade relations between Mexico and 
the United States, and which, in co-operation with 
the representatives of the United States in Mex- 
ico, will be able to initiate as active a campaign 
for American trade as is now being carried on by 
organisations of other countries for their own 
interests. 

To establish a nucleus upon which all American 
interests may centre and present a united front 
not only toward internal problems of trade, but 
also, through intercourse with chambers of com- 
merce in the United States, toward the attitude of 
a great body of American manufacturers who, by 
reason of misinformation and by inaction, are im- 
periling their hold on a market which under all 
economic laws should be inalienably theirs. 

To form a clearing house wherein business of- 
fered to firms outside of their particular line may 



APPENDIX D 275 

be promptly brought to the attention of such firms 
as are equipped to handle the same. 

To establish headquarters in Mexico City for 
local organisation and for affiliation with cham- 
bers in the United States and with American 
chambers in the cities of Latin America and 
Europe. 

To offer membership to American firms and 
American residents in the Republic of Mexico and 
in the United States. 

To secure correspondents throughout Mexico 
and especially in localities that do not afford the 
services and co-operation of American consular 
officers. 

To compile information thus gathered and to 
distribute or utilise it for the benefit of members 
and for promotion of American trade and indus- 
try; applying such information to inquiries from 
the United States and helping non-residents to 
discriminate between desirable and undesirable 
enterprises. 

To publish a periodical bulletin and market re- 
porter, carrying paid advertisements, and ulti- 
mately to establish and let space for exhibits both 
of American manufactures, and of the products of 
Mexico. To take up such other activities as the 
members may determine. 

With these objects in view Americans are in- 
vited to join in organising an American Chamber 
of Commerce of Mexico. 

The State Department at Washington, on being 



276 APPENDIX D 

informed of the plan to establish a chamber of 
commerce here, has authorised its consuls through- 
out Mexico to co-operate and to assist the chamber 
under the supervision of its consuls general. 

Proposed Plan of Organisation 

(Subject to Change hy the Subscribing Members) 

Directors and Officers 

A board of fifteen directors to be elected by the 
members of the chamber and to have general 
charge of its affairs. Of these, five to be elected 
for one year, five for two years and five for three 
years. 

The officers of the chamber shall be selected by 
the board and shall consist of a president, two 
vice-presidents, treasurer and secretary. All ex- 
cept the secretary must be members of the board. 
Honourary president and vice-presidents may also 
be chosen by the board. 

An executive committee shall be designated by 
the board from its number. The board shall deter- 
mine various committees to be established, appoint 
the members thereof and supervise their work. 

Committees 
Committees are recommended as follows: 

1. — Executive, 4. — Publicity, 

2. — Membership, 5. — Constitution, 

3. — Finance, 6. — Entertainment, 



APPENDIX D 277 

7. — Trade, 10. — Transportation, 

8. — Industrial, 11. — Agriculture, 

9. — Mining, 12. — General Development. 

Some committees would be of more immediate 
importance than others, but time would be saved 
for the future by appointing the most of them at 
once and getting their work started. Interest 
among merchants, manufacturers and financiers in 
the United States toward Mexico, although latent 
now, is widespread and will become active as soon 
as the European war closes or the situation clears 
further in Mexico. 

Location" 

Suitable rooms will be secured and kept open 
daily, making this a common meeting place for 
members and visitors, with facilities for reading 
and writing. Space could be provided and let for 
foreign and native exhibits and samples. 

Membekship and Dues 

The membership, limited to Americans, to be 
made up of these classes : 

Members Entrance Fee Quarterly Dues Vote 

Active f Corporate 100 pesos 25 pesos 2 

\ Individual 50 " 12.50 « 1 

Associate Resident 25 " 6.25 " None 

Associate ( Corporate 50 " 12 . 50 " None 

Non-Resident 1 Individual 25 " 6.25 " None 

Active members may be either resident or non- 
resident. 



278 APPENDIX D 

A resident individual or firm engaged in busi- 
ness that employs a capital of more than 10,000 
pesos shall be classed as a corporate member in 
regard to entrance fee, dues and votes. 

A local firm or company with not more than 
10,000 pesos capital may be classed as an indi- 
vidual active member with respect to entrance 
fee, dues and vote. 

Americans residing in the Federal District and 
not engaged in business may enter either as active 
individual members or associate resident members. 

Only active members shall serve on the board 
and on committees and be entitled to vote at meet- 
ings of the chamber. 

Representation of corporate members at formal 
meetings must be by Americans. 

Mexican corporations owned and controlled by 
Americans shall be considered American corpora- 
tions. 

Respectfully submitted, 

By the Committee 

H. P. Lewis K. M. Van Zandt, Jr. 

H. T. Oliver M. V. Stewart 

H. A. Basham W. L. Vail 

F. J. Dunkerley Ralph Smith 

Carl Holt Smith A. B. Mohler 

S. W. Rider, Chairman 
Consul General, G. A. Chamberlain, 
Advisory Member. 
September, 1917. 



APPENDIX E 

PBESIDENTIAL ELECTION 

The Mexican Review, published at Washington, 
printed the following statement regarding the elec- 
tion which was held after the adoption of the new 
Constitution. 

Herewith are given the complete returns of the 
Presidential election held on March 11th, can- 
vassed by Congress and announced as the official 
figures. 

In every instance the ballots were blank, a space 
being left for the voter to inscribe the name of his 
favourite candidate. As will be seen, several thou- 
sand votes were cast for others than President 
Carranza, Generals Gonzales and Obregon leading 
in this respect. Many others received smaller 
numbers of votes, including General Alvarado and 
other prominent revolutionary leaders. 
._ The figures follow on page 280. 
i 

CAEEANZA OFFICIALLY DECLARED PRESIDENT 

After canvassing the returns of the election 

from the various States, the Chamber of Deputies 

I adopted a resolution in the following words, an- 

279 



280 



APPENDIX E 

States Carranza Gonzalea Obregon 



Aguascalientes 7,394 28 17 

Colima 4,874 27 19 

Coahuila 26,841 52 219 

Campeche 2,061 6 3 

Chihuahua 5,883 2 57 

Chiapas 14,277 3 

Durango 6,816 17 202 

Guanajuato 91,226 3,328 708 

Guerrero 9,825 

Jalisco 34,135 28 52 

Mexico 52,513 1,676 620 

Michoacan 33,627 1,615 120 

Nuevo Le6n 33,166 8 10 

Oaxaca 60,964 138 73 

Puebla 57,519 1,215 193 

Quer^taro 14,754 491 111 

S. L. Potosi 22,638 71 51 

Sinaloa 12,710 24 169 

Tabasco 6,163 2 5 

Hidalgo 19,949 70 32 

Tlaxcala 21,724 176 53 

Yucatan 25,717 12 14 

Zacatecas 20,732 67 66 

Vera Cruz 39,455 276 172 

Sonora 20,667 6 367 

Tepic 8,856 2 9 

Baja California 3,056 25 

Quintana Roo 345 12 2 

Dietrito Federal 70,003 1,773 553 

Totals 797,305 11,615 4,008 

The total number of votes cast was 812,928. 



nouncing ofScially that in the election held on 
March 11th the Citizen Vennstiano Carranza re- 
ceived 797,305 votes, against various other candi- 
dates with a much inferior number of ballots. The 
resolution was unanimously approved. It reads 
as follows : 

The Chamber of Deputies of the Twenty- 
seventh Congress of the Eepublic of Mexico, con- 
stituted in an Electoral College and in use of the 
rights and faculties conferred upon them by Sec- 
tion I of Article 74 of the Political Constitution 
of the Eepublic, have decreed, after a careful ex- 



APPENDIX E 281 

amination of the electoral computations verified on 
the second Sunday of March of this year : 

Article I — The Citizen Venustiano Carranza is 
declared President for the term of four years be- 
ginning from December of 1916 until November 
of 1920, in virtue of having obtained an absolute 
majority of votes in the election. 

Article II — In virtue of this, the Citizen Venus- 
tiano Carranza is cited to appear on May the first 
before the Chamber of Deputies, and with all the 
formalities of the law take the oath of office as 
President of the Eepublic. 

Chamber of Deputies, Mexico, April 26, 1916. 
Eduaedo Hay, President. 
Jesus Lopez Lira, Secretary. 
FiLOMENo Mata, Second Secretary, 



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